University  of  California, 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 


BENJAIN   HARVEY    HILL 


M 


(A  SENATOR  FROM  GEORGIA), 


DELIVERED  IN  THE 


U  ,5, 

IV 

SENATE  AND  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

FORTY-SEVENTH  CONGRESS,  SECOND  SESSION, 

JANUARY  25,  1883. 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT     PRINTING     OFFICE. 

1883. 


JOINT  RESOLUTION  to  print  certain  eulogies  delivered  in  Congress  upon  the  late  Ben 
jamin  H.  Hill. 

Be  it  resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  there  be  printed  twelve  thousand  copies 
of  the  eulogies  delivered  in  Congress  upon  the  late  Benjamin  H.  Hill,  a  Sena 
tor  from  the  State  of  Georgia,  of  which  four  thousand  shall  be  for  the  use 
of  the  Senate,  and  eight  thousand  for  the  use  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  ;  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  be,  and  he  is  hereby,  directed  to  have 
printed  a  portrait  of  said  Benjamin  H.  Hill  to  accompany  each  copy  of  said 
eulogies  ;  and  for  the  purpose  of  defraying  the  expense  of  engraving  and  print 
ing  the  said  portrait,  the  sum  of  six  hundred  dollars,  or  so  much  thereof  as 
may  be  necessary,  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby,  appropriated  out  of  any  money 
in  the  Treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated. 

Approved  February  23,  1883. 


rag 

UNIVERSITY 


ANNOUNCEMENT 

OF    THE 

DEATH  OF  BENJAMIN  HARVEY  HILT. 

A  SENATOR  FROM  GEORGIA, 


IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 
Monday,  December  4,  1882. 


Rev.  J.  J.  BULLOCK,  D.  D.,  Chaplain  to  the  Senate,  offered  the 
following 

PKAYEE : 

Almighty  God,  our  Heavenly  Father,  it  ever  becomes  us  to  ap 
proach  Thee  with  the  voice  of  gratitude  and  praise,  for  Thou  art 
good,  O  Lord,  and  Thou  doest  good  to  all,  and  Thy  tender  mercies 
are  over  all  Thy  works.  We  thank  Thee  for  all  the  goodness  and 
mercy  which  have  crowned  our  past  lives.  Especially  would  we 
offer  up  our  humble  and  hearty  thanks  unto  Thee  for  Thy  watch 
ful  providence  over  us  during  the  period  of  our  separation,  and 
that  we  are  permitted  to  meet  together  again  under  circumstances 
of  great  mercy  in  the  enjoyment  of  health,  of  reason,  and  of  every 
blessing. 

Defend  and  deliver  us  from  all  evil.  Guide  us  in  the  way  of 
wisdom,  of  truth,  and  of  righteousness.  May  we  have  peace  in 
all  our  borders  and  prosperity  in  all  our  habitations. 

Bless  our  rulers,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  Senate,  the  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress, 


4  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

and  all  others  in  authority.  Guide  and  assist  them  to  discharge 
aright  the  duties  and  responsibilities  which  devolve  upon  them  as 
the  rulers  of  this  great  country.  Fill  our  land  with  the  knowl 
edge  of  Thy  truth  and  with  the  fruits  of  righteousness.  May  we 
long  live  a  united,  happy,  and  prosperous  people. 

God  be  merciful  unto  us  and  bless  us,  and  cause  His  face  to  shine 
upon  us,  and  give  us  pardon  and  peace  and  eternal  life.  Through 
Jesus  Christ,  our  Redeemer.  Amen. 


Mr.  BROWN.  Mr.  President,  it  becomes  my  most  painful  duty, 
in  this  official  form,  to  announce  to  the  Senate  the  death  of  my 
late  colleague,  Hon.  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL.  That  patriotic  citizen, 
grand  orator,  able  statesmen,  and  Christian  gentleman  died  at  his 
residence,  in  the  city  of  Atlanta,  on  the  16th  day  of  August  last. 
The  intelligence  of  the  death  of  Senator  Hill  was  received  with 

O 

profound  regret  throughout  the  whole  country.  But  the  people  of 
Georgia,  whom  he  had  so  ably  served  and  who  had  so  long  de 
lighted  to  honor  him,  were  the  greatest  suiferers.  Grief-stricken, 
they  bowed  their  heads  in  sorrow,  and  will  long  mourn  their 
irreparable  loss. 

But,  Mr.  President,  having  performed  the  melancholy  duty  of 
announcing  the  death  of  my  late  colleague  to  the  Senate,  the  pro 
prieties  of  the  occasion  will  not,  at  present,  permit  a  further  exten 
sion  of  these  remarks.  At  a  future  day  I  shall  ask  a  suspension  of 
the  public  business,  that  the  Senate,  in  connection  with  the  House 
of  Representatives,  may  pay  fitting  tribute  to  the  character,  the 
virtues,  the  ability,  and  the  services  of  the  deceased  Senator. 

I  now  offer  the  following  resolutions,  and  move  their  immediate 
consideration : 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  has  heard  with  profound  sorrow  of  the  death  of 
Hon.  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL,  a  Senator  from  the  State  of  Georgia. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  communicate  these  proceedings  to  the  House 
of  Representatives. 

Resolved,  As  a  token  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased,  that  the  Sen 
ate  do  now  adjourn. 

The  resolutions  were  agreed  to  unanimously ;  and  (at  two  o'clock 
and  forty-five  minutes  p.  m.)  the  Senate  adjourned. 


UNIVERSITY) 


ADDEESSBS 

ON  THE 

DEATH  OF  BENJAMIN  HARVEY  HILL, 

A  SENATOR  FROM  GEORGIA. 

DELIVERED  IN  THE  SENATE 

Thursday,  January  25,  1883. 


The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore.  This  day  having  been  set  apart  for 
services  in  honor  of  the  memory  of  our  late  brother  BENJAMIN 
H.  HILL,  the  usual  morning  business  will  be  dispensed  with. 

Mr.  BROWN.  I  submit  the  resolutions  which  I  send  to  the  Chair, 
and  I  ask  for  their  immediate  consideration. 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore.  The  resolutions  will  be  read. 

The  Acting  Secretary  read  the  resolutions,  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  earnestly  desiring  to  show  every  possible  mark  of  respect 
to  the  memory  of  the  Hon.  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL,  late  a  Senator  of  the  United 
States  from  the  State  of  Georgia,  and  to  manifest  the  high  estimate  in  which 
his  eminent  public  services  and  distinguished  patriotism  are  held,  the  busi 
ness  of  the  Senate  be  now  suspended,  that  the  friends  and  late  associates  of 
Senator  HILL  may  pay  fitting  tribute  to  his  high  character,  his  public  serv 
ices,  and  his  private  virtues. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  death  of  Senator  HILL  the  country  has  sustained  a 
loss  which  has  been  felt  and  deplored  to  the  utmost  limits  of  the  Union. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  communicate  these  resolutions 
to  the  House  of  Representatives. 

Resolved,  That  as  an  additional  mark  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  de 
ceased  the  Senate  do  now  adjourn. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  R.   HILL. 


Address  of  Mr.  BROWN,  of  Georgia. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  BENJAMIN  HARVEY  HILL,  whose  life,  charac 
ter,  and  distinguished  services  are  the.  subject  of  our  present  con 
sideration,  was  born  at  Hillsborough,  in  Jasper  County,  Georgia, 
on  the  14th  day  of  September,  1823.  His  father,  Mr.  John  Hill, 
was  a  gentleman  of  limited  means,  without  a  liberal  education. 
But  he  was  a  man  of  spotless  character,  of  very  strong  common 
sense,  and  a  great  deal  of  will  power,  who  always  exerted  an  ex 
tensive  influence  in  his  neighborhood  and  section. 

The  mother  of  the  distinguished  statesman,  whose  maiden  name 
was  Parham,  was  a  lady  of  very  fine  traits  of  character,  whose  pre 
cepts  and  example  exerted  a  most  salutary  and  powerful  influence 
over  her  children.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hill  were  devoted  and  consist 
ent  members  of  the  Methodist  Church.  They  lived  and  died  in 
the  faith,  and  were  eminently  useful  in  their  day  and  generation. 

When  the  subject  of  this  sketch  was  about  ten  years  old  his 
father  moved  from  Hillsborough  to  the  neighborhood  called  Long 
Cane,  in  .Troup  County,  Georgia,  which  was  his  home  until  the 
day  of  his  death.  Mr.  Hill  not  only  trained  his  children  to  habits 
of  morality  and  Christian  virtue,  but  he  caused  them  to  labor  with 
their  hands  and  earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow.  Being 
a  sober,  industrious,  and  persevering  man,  he  accumulated  prior  to 
his  death  a  considerable  property,  and  was  able  to  give  to  each  of 
his  nine  children  something  quite  respectable  to  start  life  with.  His 
sou  Benjamin  was  obedient  and  faithful  to  his  parents  ;  he  labored 
hard  to  aid  his  father.  While  he  was  quite  industrious,  he  was  noted 
as  a  very  bright  and  promising  youth.  When  he  reached  the  age 
of  18  years  he  was  very  anxious  to  improve  the  education  which 
he  had  been  able  to  obtain  in  the  country  by  going  through  a 
course  in  the  University  of  Georgia.  But  as  the  family  was  large 
his  father  felt  that  he  had  not  the  means  to  spare,  and  do  justice  to 
the  other  children,  which  were  necessary  to  complete  the  collegiate 
course  of  his  son.  After  a  family  consultation  it  was  agreed  by 
the  mother  and  by  a  good  and  faithful  aunt  that  they,  out  of  the 


ADDRESS  OF  MI?.  BROWN,  OF  GEORGIA.  1 

small  means  they  had  accumulated,  would  furnish  one-half  the 
amount,  the  father  furnishing  the  other  half.  Under  this  arrange 
ment  the  gifted  son  was  enabled  to  enter  the  State  University. 
Before  he  left  home  he  promised  his  mother,  if  the  means  could 
be  raised  to  enable  him  to  complete  his  collegiate  course,  that  he 
would  take  the  first  honor  in  his  class. 

In  the  university  the  young  student  was  industrious,  attentive, 
and  energetic.  His  progress  was  rapid,  and  his  mental  develop 
ment  very  gratifying  to  his  numerous  friends  in  the  university  and 
elsewhere,  who  watched  his  progress  and  the  development  of  his 
genius  with  great  pride  and  gratification.  When  the  commence 
ment  came  at  the  end  of  the  senior  year,  the  faculty  unanimously 
awarded  the  first  honor  to  young  HILL.  He  also  took  all  the 
honors  of  the  literary  society  to  which  he  belonged.  And  in  a  famil 
iar  letter  to  a  friend  he  said,  within  the  last  few  years,  that  was  the 
proudest  day  of  his  life,  and  that  nothing  ever  afforded  him  more 
gratification  than  it  did  to  write  to  his  mother  the  news  that  filled 
his  heart  with  so  much  joy. 

Soon  after  the  close  of  his  collegiate  career  Mr.  HILL  was  mar 
ried  to  Miss  Caroline  Holt,  of  Athens,  Georgia,  a  young  lady  be 
longing  to  one  of  Georgia's  oldest  and  most  honored  families ;  of 
good  fortune,  great  amiability,  beauty,  and  accomplishments.  The 
happy  and  brilliant  young  couple  settled  in  La  Grange,  in  Troup 
County,  where  Mr.  HILL,  who  had  already  studied  law  and  been 
admitted  to  the  bar,  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession. 
From  the  very  commencement,  the  tact,  research,  and  ability  with 
which  he  conducted  his  earliest  cases  gave  bright  promise  of  his 
future  eminence.  He  grew  rapidly  at  the  bar  until  he  was  soon 
employed  in  every  important  case  in  his  county,  and  his  professional 
fame  spread  into  the  adjoining  counties  of  the  State  and  he  became 
the  center  figure  at  the  bar  in  the  courts  of  his  circuit. 

In  connection  with  his  legal  practice  Mr.  HILL  purchased  a 
valuable  plantation,  and  with  the  slaves  that  he  obtained  by  his 
wife  and  by  inheritance  from  his  father,  and  purchased  from  time 
to  time  out  of  his  incomes,  he  conducted  the  business  of  planting 
on  an  extensive  and  profitable  scale. 


8  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

Mr.  HILL  started  life  an  ardent  Whig;  and  it  could  not  be  ex^ 
pected  that  a  young  lawyer  of  his  brilliant  talents  could  long  keep 
out  of  politics.  In  1851  he  was  elected  to  the  house  of  represent 
atives  of  the  legislature  of  Georgia,  where  he  soon  rose  to  the 
position  of  one  of  the  ablest  debaters  and  most  influential  members 
of  that  body.  After  the  legislature  adjourned  he  resumed  the 
practice  of  his  profession  with  great  skill  and  energy. 

The  old  Whig  party  having  in  the  mean  time  been  dissolved  in 
Georgia,  Mr.  HILL  in  1855  became  a  member  of  what  was  known 
as  the  American  party,  and  was  nominated  by  that  party  as  their 
candidate  for  Congress,  in  opposition  to  Hon.  Hiram  Warner,  the 
Democratic  nominee.  The  race  was  an  exciting  one.  Judge  War 
ner  was  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  profound  men  of  the  State, 
though  not  a  distinguished  orator.  Mr.  HILL  canvassed  the  dis 
trict,  and  usually  had  the  advantage  everywhere  in  the  popular 
applause.  He  was  defeated,  however,  Judge  Warner  securing  a 
small  majority. 

In  1856  Mr.  HILL  was  a  candidate  for  elector  for  the  State  at 
large  on  the  Fillmore  ticket.  He  canvassed  the  State  with  great 
energy,  ability,  and  eloquence.  From  the  day  on  which  he  made 
his  first  grand  effort  in  support  of  his  candidate  must  be  dated  his 
recognition  as  the  leader  of  his  party  in  Georgia.  During  the 
campaign  he  met  the  leading  Democratic  speakers  at  various  points. 
He  had  an  animated  discussion  with  Mr.  Stephens  at  Lexington, 
and  with  General  Toombs  at  Washington,  Georgia.  His  most  ar 
dent  admirers  were  entirely  content  with  the  ability  he  displayed 
in  these  contests  with  his  distinguished  opponents. 

From  that  time  forward  his  influence  with  his  party  was  un 
bounded.  They  not  only  trusted  and  followed  him  but  he  con 
trolled  them  absolutely. 

In  1857  the  author  of  this  sketch  was  nominated  by  the  Demo 
cratic  party  of  Georgia  as  their  candidate  for  governor,  and  Mr. 
HILL  was  nominated  by  the  American  party  for  the  same  position. 
We  were  both  young  and  ardent.  I  was  36  years  of  age,  he  34. 
We  had  never  met  till  the  day  of  our  first  joint  discussion,  when 
we  were  leading  our  respective  parties  as  opposing  candidates.  The 


ADDEESS  OF  MR.  BROWN,  OF  GEORGIA.  9 

contest  was  energetic  and  exciting.  Mr.  HILL  displayed  great 
powers  of  eloquence  in  the  debates,  and  was"  an  exceedingly  inter 
esting  and  formidable  competitor.  The  contest  ended  in  the  elec 
tion  of  the  Democratic  candidate. 

Mr.  HILL  then  stood  among  the  very  first  men  of  the  country 
as  a  political  debater,  and  occupied  a  very  high  rank  as  a  lawyer 
and  as  an  advocate  at  the  bar. 

In  1859  he  was  elected  by  his  party  to  the  senate  of  Georgia. 
He  exhibited  great  power  in  the  debates  of  the  session,  and  was 
without  a  rival  the  leader  of  his  party  in  the  legislature. 

In  1860  he  was  again  a  candidate  for  Presidential  elector,  and 
canvassed  the  State  for  Bell  and  Everett  for  President  and  Vice- 
President.  His  speeches  were  exceedingly  able  and  brilliant. 

The  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  the  Presidency,  as  the  South 
regarded  it,  upon  a  strictly  sectional  platform,  brought  about  the 
overwhelming  discontent  in  that  section  which  resulted  in  the  se 
cession  of  the  Southern  States  and  the  unfortunate  civil  war.  When 
a  convention  to  consider  this  question  was  called  in  Georgia,  Mr. 
HILL  was  with  great  unanimity  elected  a  member  of  it  from  the 
county  of  Troup.  He  was  an  avowed  Union  man,  and  in  conjunc 
tion  with  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  Herschell  V.  Johnson,  Linton 
Stephens,  and  some  others,  leading  men  of  Georgia,  he  opposed 
secession  ably  and  earnestly  until  the  final  passage  of  the  resolution 
that  it  was  the  right  and  duty  of  Georgia  to  secede.  When  the 
ordinance  was  passed  he  signed  it,  taking  position,  as  did  the  other 
distinguished  gentlemen  whose  names  I  have  mentioned,  that  as  a 
Georgian  he  owed  his  allegiance  first  to  the  State  of  his  nativity, 
of  his  manhood,  and  of  his  home ;  that  her  people  were  his  people, 
and  her  fate  should  be  his  fate. 

After  the  State  had  seceded,  Mr.  HILL  was  chosen  one  of  the 
delegates  to  the  Confederate  convention  at  Montgomery,  Alabama. 
In  that  convention  he  took  an  able  and  distinguished  part.  Soon 
after  the  convention  adjourned,  when  the  time  came  to  elect  Con 
federate  senators,  he  was  chosen  for  the  long  term,  and  took  his 
seat  in  the  Confederate  senate,  which  he  occupied  till  the  end  of  the 
war.  He  was  made  chairman  of  the  judiciary  committee,  and  had 
the  confidence  of  President  Davis  to  the  fullest  extent,  and  was 


10  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

regarded  the  ablest  supporter  of  Mr.  Davis's  policy  in  the  senate. 
And  when  the  cause  was  waning,  and  our  people  were  deeply  de 
pressed,  Mr.  HILL  left  the  senate  and  went  upon  the  stump,  and 
was  making  an  able  effort  to  arouse  the  spirits  of  the  people  of 
Georgia  and  of  the  Confederacy  to  renewed  resistance  when  General 
Lee  surrendered. 

Soon  after  the  Confederacy  failed,  when  many  of  those  who  had 
been  considered  the  leaders  were  arrested,  Mr.  HILL  was  among 
the  number.  While  President  Davis  was  consigned  to  a  cell  in 
Fortress  Monroe,  and  Vice-President  Stephens  to  one  in  Fort 
Warren,  and  the  author  of  this  sketch,  with  a  number  of  distin 
guished  Confederates,  was  incarcerated  in  the  Carroll  Prison  in  this 
city,  Mr.  HILL  was  assigned  to  quarters  in  Fort  Lafayette,  in  New 
York  harbor. 

After  the  release  of  Mr.  HILL  from  prison,  he  returned  to 
Georgia  and  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession  with  great  energy 
and  splendid  success.  He  pursued  his  profession,  taking  little  part 
in  politics,  until  after  the  passage  of  the  reconstruction  acts  in  March, 
1867,  when  it  was  again  the  misfortune  of  the  author  of  this  sketch 
to  differ  with  his  former  opponent. 

After  our  resources  were  exhausted  and  our  armies  had  surren 
dered,  I  thought  I  saw  that  we  were  in  the  power  and  at  the  mercy 
of  a  conquering  Government,  and  I  advised  the  people  of  Georgia 
to  acquiesce  promptly  in  the  terms" dictated  by  Congress;  to  take 
part  in  the  convention  which  was  called  by  the  military  command 
er  in  charge  of  the  district  embracing  the  State  of  Georgia;  to 
send  our  best  men  as  members;  to  secure  the  best  constitution  pos 
sible,  and  under  it  try  to  live  a  peaceable  life  and  labor  to  restore 
prosperity  at  the  earliest  day  within  our  power.  A  majority  of  the 
white  people  of  Georgia  differed  with  me  on  that  point — Mr.  HILL 
among  them.  He  believed  by  an  able  and  bold  opposition  to  the 
measures  prescribed  by  Congress,  and  by  resistance  to  them  in  every 
manner  not  forcible,  the  people  of  the  Northern  and  Western 
States  would  condemn  the  action  of  Congress,  restore  the  Democratic 
party  to  power,  and  we  would  be  saved  much  of  the  humiliation 
we  had  been  exposed  to  by  acts  of  Congress  which  were  regarded 
by  our  people  as  illiberal  and  unjust. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  BROWN,  OF  GEORGIA.  11 

When  Mr.  HILL  espoused  the  cause  on  this  line,  he  did  it  with 
all  the  ability,  earnestness,  energy,  and  enthusiasm  of  his  nature. 
He  attended  the  first  Democratic  convention  held  in  Georgia,  and 
was  the  leading  spirit  and  director  of  it.  In  the  face  of  the  mili 
tary,  with  undaunted  spirit,  he  made  what  was  known  as  his  "Davis 
Hall  speech,"  in  the  city  of  Atlanta,  which,  as  a  masterpiece  of  de 
nunciation,  philippic,  and  invective,  has  scarcely  ever  been  equaled, 
except  in  what  were  known  as  his  "Bush-arbor  speech"  and  his 
"Notes  on  the  Situation."  The  magic  power  of  his  declamation 
and  of  his  denunciation  were  overwhelming  and  terrific.  Probably 
no  one  of  the  masters  of  elocution  who  has  lived  on  this  continent 
has  surpassed  it. 

As  the  author  of  this  sketch  had  affiliated  with  the  reconstruc 
tion  party,  his  course  shared  liberally  in  the  overwhelming  and 
terrific  denunciation  of  the  great  orator.  Reference  to  the  replies 
which  were  made  to  these  vigorous  assaults  is  not  appropriate  to 
this  occasion.  The  period  was  a  stormy  one.  The  debates  were 
bitter  and  even  vindictive  on  both  sides.  It  was  a  time  of  mad 
ness.  Social  relations  were  sundered  in  many  cases,  and  there  was 
for  a  time  an  upheaval  of  the  very  foundations  of  society.  During 
this  extraordinary  period,  when  the  whole  political  fabric  of  the 
State  seemed  to  rock  amid  the  throes  of  dissolution,  no  one  figured 
so  grandly  as  Mr.  HILL,  and  no  one  was  so  idolized  as  he. 

But  the  people  of  the  South  were  doomed  to  an  unconditional 
surrender.  We  were  compelled  to  accept  the  reconstruction  meas 
ures.  When  we  rejected  the  fourteenth  Constitutional  amendment, 
the  fifteenth  was  proposed,  and  we  were  afterward  compelled  to  ac 
cept  both  before  we  could  be  readmitted  to  representation  in  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States. 

After  the  reconstruction  of  the  States  was  completed  under  the 
plan  dictated  by  Congress,  and  the  Constitutional  amendments  were 
adopted  and  incorporated  into  and  became  part  of  that  instrument, 
it  was  discovered  by  all  that  both  the  Congress  and  the  courts  would 
unquestionably  sustain  those  new  provisions  of  the  Constitution  as 
part  of  the  fundamental  law  of  this  country,  and  that  the  Govern 
ment  would  be  administered  accordingly. 

In  this  state  of  things,  in  the  fall  of  1870  Mr.  HILL  became 


12  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  U.  HILL. 

fully  convinced  of  the  fact  that  further  resistance  was  useless.  And 
while  he  believed  he  had  saved  much  to  the  State  by  the  course  he 
had  pursued  in  rallying  and  holding  the  people  together  and  re 
organizing  the  Democracy  upon  a  firm  basis,  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
advise  the  people  of  Georgia  to  cease  further  resistance  to  what  was 
then  an  accomplished  fact. 

Seeing  that  further  resistance  was  fruitless,  he  considered  it 
would  be  criminal  to  continue  to  throw  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the 
Government.  This  announcement  on  his  part  exposed  him  for  a 
time  to  severe  criticism  by  those  who  did  not  understand  his  mo 
tives.  But  he  was  as  firm  and  lion-like  in  maintaining  the  stand 
he  then  took  as  he  had  been  in  the  terrible  resistance  which  he 
made  to  the  reconstruction  measures  as  long  as  he  entertained  any 
hope  that  resistance  might  be  successful.  From  this  time  forward 
Mr.  HILL  renewed  his  allegiance  to  the  Government  to  the  fullest 
extent,  and  did  all  in  his  power  to  produce  quiet  and  contentment, 
which  he  saw  were  necessary  to  a  return  of  peace  and  prosperity 
to  our  people. 

During  the  period  that  intervened,  for  the  next  two  or  three 
years,  he  pursued  his  law  practice  with  his  usual  ability  and  suc 
cess,  and  also  again  embarked  in  a  large  planting  business  in 
Southwestern  Georgia. 

But  the  people  of  Georgia  were  not  content  that  he  should  re 
main  a  private  citizen.  They  desired  the  benefit  of  his  superb 
talents  in  the  national  councils  ;  and  on  the  death  of  Hon.  Gar 
net  McMillan,  who  was  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
from  the  ninth  district  of  Georgia,  Mr.  HILL,  by  an  overwhelm 
ing  majority,  was  elected  to  fill  the  vacancy;  and  he  took  his  seat 
in  the  House.  His  course  there  is  familiar  to  most  if  not  all  who 
hear  me.  Some  splendid  exhibitions  of  his  oratorical  powers  in 
that  body  soon  gave  him  an  extensive  national  reputation.  His 
celebrated  discussion  with  the  distinguished  Representative  from 
Maine,  Mr.  Blaiue,  was  one  of  the  most  memorable  that  has  ever 
occurred  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  Each  of  the  able  an 
tagonists  sustained  his  cause  in  a  manner  entirely  satisfactory  to 
his  friends.  Heated,  earnest,  and  almost  vituperative  as  the  de 
bate  was  between  them,  they  learned  to  know  each  other's  ability 


ADDEESS  OF  MB.  BEOWN,  OF  GEORGIA.     .  13 

and  worth  and  were  mutually  benefited.  Each  was  soon  called  by 
his  State  to  occupy  a  seat  in  this  Chamber;  and  as  their  acquaint 
ance  was  prolonged,  it  grew  first  into  friendship  and  then  into  an 
earnest  admiration  of  each  other.  The  letter  of  condolence  sent 
by  Mr.  Elaine  on  the  death  of  Mr.  HILL  did  honor  alike  to  his 
head  and  his  heart,  and  was  highly  appreciated  by  the  numerous 
friends  of  the  deceased  Senator. 

As  to  the  course  of  Senator  HILL  in  this  body  and  the  splendid 
triumphs  of  his  eloquence  and  his  genius  which  have  been  here  ex 
hibited  I  need  not  speak.  They  are  well  known  to  the  Senate, 
and  will  long  be  remembered  by  his  friends,  his  compeers,  and  an 
appreciative  public. 

As  I  have  been  compelled,  in  order  to  give  correctly  an  outline 
of  the  life  and  career  of  the  great  Senator,  to  make  a  passing  refer 
ence  to  the  early  antagonism  and  at  one  time  bitterness  that  ex 
isted  between  us,  it  affords  me  great  pleasure  to  state  that  in  later 
life,  when  we  knew  each  other  better  and  were  frequently  thrown 
together,  in  times  less  stormy  and  less  revolutionary,  when  it  be 
came  our  duty  to  consult  together  to  determine  what  was  most  for 
the  public  good  and  what  would  soonest  restore  prosperity  to  our 
State  and  our  section,  our  relations  were  changed. 

I  had  retired  from  public  life  and  had  no  expectation  that  I 
should  ever  enter  it  again.  But  I  was  unwilling  that  Mr.  HILL'S 
splendid  talents  should  be  confined  simply  to  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  and  I  desired  to  see  him  in  the  councils  of  the  Union. 

When  he  ran  for  the  House  of  Representatives,  though  not  in 
his  district,  I  had  a  host  of  friends  there  who  sustained  him. 
When  he  became  a  candidate  for  the  Senate  my  friends  held  the 
balance  of  power  ;  and  while  I  had  great  regard  for  the  gentleman 
who  then  occupied  the  seat,  I  felt  that  Mr.  HILL  could  do  more  to 
serve  the  State  in  that  capacity  than  the  incumbent.  And  when 
Governor  Smith  retired  from  the  contest  on  the  day  of  election 
my  friends  gave  Mr.  HILL  their  cordial  support. 

At  a  later  period,  when  I  was  called  unexpectedly  back  into  the 
service  of  my  State  and  took  my  seat  in  this  Chamber,  he  met  me 
with  the  cordiality  which  our  relations  then  justified.  During  our 


14  LIFE  AND  CHARACTEE  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

service  together  that  cordiality  ripened  into  intimate  and  confi 
dential  friendship.  He  frequently  said  to  me,  "  I  regret  that  we 
had  not  sooner  known  each  other  better.  I  regret  that  we  were 
thrown,  when  young  and  ardent,  into  the  positions  of  antagonism 
which  we  then  occupied."  One  of  the  last  letters  I  received  from 
him  before  the  sad  event  which  shocked  the  Union  was  full  of  con 
fidence  and  cordial  friendship.  Referring  to  the  past,  he  said, 
"  Who  would  then  have  thought  that  you  were  during  my  lifetime 
to  become  my  most  trusted  and  confidential  friend?"  No  one  felt 
more  keenly  than  I  did  his  loss,  and  no  one  shed  tears  of  more  sin 
cere  regret.  A  great  man  has  fallen.  The  whole  country  feels 
the  shock.  As  a  citizen  he  was  patriotic,  trusted,  and  beloved ; 
as  a  kind  and  indulgent  husband  and  father  few  persons  can  justly 
be  compared  to  him. 

Mr.  HILL'S  love  for  his  mother,  and  the  veneration  with  which 
he  cherished  her  memory  after  her  death,  were  beautiful  and  touch 
ing.  It  was  his  habit  when  at  home  to  go  every  day  into  his  par 
lor  where  her  portrait  hung,  and  to  look  tenderly  in  her  face,  and 
to  bow  to  her  on  retiring.  A  day  or  two  before  his  death,  when 
he  was  too  feeble  to  support  himself  without  assistance,  he  re 
quested  his  attendants  to  carry  him  into  the  parlor,  that  he  might 
take  a  last  look  at  the  likeness  of  the  face  that  was  so  dear  to  him. 
On  approaching  the  likeness  he  was  visibly  affected.  He  gazed 
lovingly  upon  the  form,  and  as  his  heart  heaved  with  emotion  and 
his  eyes  filled  with  tears  he  said :  "  I  shall  soon  be  with  her 
again."  Then,  bowing  most  reverently  and  affectionately,  he  was 
borne  from  the  parlor,  never  more  in  this  world  to  look  upon  the 
form  so  tenderly  cherished  by  him. 

But,  Senators,  this  sketch  would  be  incomplete  without  a  refer 
ence  to  the  religious  character  of  Georgia's  great  statesman.  As  I 
have  already  premised,  his  father  and  mother  were  earnest,  devout, 
and  consistent  members  of  the  Methodist  Church.  At  fourteen 
years  of  age  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL  became  a  member  of  that  church. 
He  was  faithful  and  zealous,  and  lived  a  very  exemplary  life. 
During  the  period  of  his  youth  and  early  manhood  he  was  noted 
for  his  religious  devotion  and  his  piety.  For  years  after  his  happy 


ADDRESS  OF  MB.  BROWN,  OF  GEORGIA.  15 

marriage  with  his  lovely  wife  he  and  his  family  surrounded  the 
altar  daily  together  in  prayer  and  devotion. 

At  a  later  period  of  life,  when  he  became  more  engrossed  with  the 
courts  and  absorbed  in  politics  and  other  public  duties,  he  was  thrown 
much  away  from  his  home,  and  his  mind  was  diverted  to  other 
objects,  which  made  heavy  drafts  upon  his  time  and  attention.  And 
during  this  most  active  period  of  his  public  career  he  was  less  at 
tentive  to  his  religious  duties,  which  was  afterwards  to  him  a  source 
of  great  regret.  But  when  the  disease  which  finally  terminated  in 
his  untimely  death  had  seized  upon  him,  its  inroads  were  slow,  and 
his  sufferings  were  very  great.  During  this  long  and  trying  period 
his  mind  reverted  back  to  the  family  altar,  to  his  church  rela 
tions,  and  to  his  religious  privileges  and  duties.  He  calmly  sur 
veyed  the  situation  and  reviewed  his  life,  and  his  faith  became 
still  more  firmly  anchored  within  the  veil.  He  met  his  sufferings 
with  a  patience  and  Christian  fortitude  that  in  its  lessons  and  teach 
ings  were  absolutely  sublime. 

While  his  sufferings  were  intense  and  his  pain  often  excruciating 
he  never  murmured,  but  said,  "  Let  God's  will  be  done,  not  mine." 
Nothing  pleased  him  better  than  the  conversation  of  ministers  of 
the  Gospel  on  religious  subjects.  He  spoke  of  the  atonement  made 
by  our  Saviour,  of  its  efficiency,  and  of  the  hope  that  he  enter 
tained.  He  delighted  to  dwell  on  these  subjects.  While  he  suf 
fered  from  day  to  day  and  from  night  to  night  nothing  disturbed 
his  equanimity,  nothing  for  a  moment  brought  a  murmur  to  his 
lips.  Brilliant  and  surpassing  as  had  been  many  of  the  triumphs  of 
his  life,  his  Christian  resignation  and  fortitude  and  his  triumph  in 
death  were  much  more  brilliant,  much  more  sublime. 

When  his  powers  of  speech  had  failed  and  his  once  eloquent 
tongue  had  ceased  to  articulate  and  he  was  gently  and  peacefully 
sinking  into  the  embrace  of  death  that  good  man,  Rev.  C.  A. 
Evans,  pastor  of  his  church,  visited  him,  and  approaching  him 
with  great  gentleness  and  kindness  spoke  words  of  consolation. 
The  dying  Senator,  with  a  heart  full  of  love  and  his  countenance 
beaming  with  heavenly  visions,  after  struggling  with  the  impedi 
ment  that  bound  his  tongue  in  silence,  uttered  audibly  his  last  sen 
tence:  "Almost  home." 


16  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

Thus  quietly  and  peacefully  passed  away  one  whose  memory  we 
all  affectionately  cherish. 

But,  Senators,  our  late  companion  is  not  dead.  He  has  passed 
behind  the  veil,  and  his  form  is  no  longer  seen  by  us.  His  body 
sleeps  in  the  grave,  but  his  immortal  spirit  rests  in  the  paradise  of 
God. 

Mr.  President,  in  the  demise  of  Senator  HILL  the  whole  Union 
has  sustained  a  severe  loss.  But  the  affliction  of  the  people  of 
Georgia  is  greater  than  any  other  can  be ;  they  knew  him ;  they 
loved  him ;  they  honored  and  trusted  him ;  they  almost  idolized 
him.  And  when  it  was  announced  that  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL  was 
no  more  they  bowed  their  heads  in  sorrow,  and  will  long  mourn 
their  irreparable  loss. 

But,  Mr.  President,  Senator  HILL  possessed  intellectual  qualities 
of  the  highest  order.  His  genius  was  acknowledged  by  all.  In 
debate  he  was  surpassingly  grand  and  convincing.  As  a  logician 
he  had  few  equals;  as  an  impassioned  orator  he  had  no  superior; 
as  a  lawyer  he  occupied  the  first  rank ;  as  an  advocate  at  the  bar 
he  was  absolutely  overwhelming ;  as  an  American  Senator  he  was 
the  peer  of  any  one. 

When  I  reflect  upon  the  great  oratorical  powers  of  Senator  HILL, 
the  splendor  of  his  genius,  the  simplicity  of  his  heart,  and  the  pa 
triotic  impulses  of  his  nature,  as  I  had  learned  in  later  life  to  know 
them,  I  conclude  that  the  day  is  not  distant  when  some  great 
American  poet,  burning  with  patriotic  zeal  as  well  as  poetic  fire, 
will  weave  into  verse,  a  tribute  to  his  memory  as  glowing  and  as 
just,  as  the  immortal  English  bard,  paid  the  great  Irish  orator,  when 
Byron  sang: 

Ever  glorious  Grattan !  the  best  of  the  good ! 

So  simple  in  heart,  so  sublime  in  the  rest; 
With  all  which  Demosthenes  wanted  endued, 

And  his  rival  or  victor  in  all  he  possessed. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  ING  ALLS,   OF  KAN, 


Address  of  Mr.  INGALLS,  of  Kansas. 


BEN.  HILL  has  gone  to  the  undiscovered  country. 

Whether  his  journey  thither  was  but  one  step  across  an  imper 
ceptible  frontier,  or  whether  an  interminable  ocean,  black,  unfluc 
tuating,  and  voiceless,  stretches  between  these  earthly  coasts  and 
those  invisible  shores — we  do  not  know. 

Whether  on  that  August  morning  after  death  he  saw  a  more 
glorious  sun  rise  with  unimaginable  splendor  above  a  celestial  hori 
zon,  or  whether  his  apathetic  and  unconscious  ashes  still  sleep  in 
cold  obstruction  and  insensible  oblivion — we  do  not  know. 

Whether  his  strong  and  subtle  energies  found  instant  exercise 
in  another  forum,  whether  his  dextrous  and  disciplined  faculties 
are  now  contending  in  a  higher  senate  than  ours  for  supremacy,  or 
whether  his  powers  were  dissipated  and  dispersed  with  his  parting 
breath — we  do  not  know. 

Whether  his  passions,  ambitions,  and  affections  still  sway,  at 
tract,  and  impel,  whether  he  yet  remembers  us  as  we  remember 
him — we  do  not  know. 

These  are  the  unsolved,  the  insoluble  problems  of  mortal  life 
and  human  destiny,  which  prompted  the  troubled  patriarch  to  ask 
that  momentous  question  for  which  the  centuries  have  given  no 
answer — "If  a  man  die  shall  he  live  again?" 

Every  man  is  the  center  of  a  circle  whose  fatal  circumference  he 
cannot  pass.  Within  its  narrow  confines  he  is  potential,  beyond 
it  he  perishes;  and  if  immortality  be  a  splendid  but  delusive  dream, 
if  the  incompleteness  of  every  career,  even  the  longest  and  most 
fortunate,  be  not  supplemented  and  perfected  after  its  termination 
here,  then  he  who  dreads  to  die  should  fear  to  live,  for  life  is  a 
tragedy  more  desolate  and  inexplicable  than  death. 

Of  all  the  dead  whose  obsequies  we  have  paused  to  solemnize  in 
this  Chamber  J  recall  no  one  whose  untimely  fate  seems  so  lament 
able,  and  yet  so  rich  in  prophecy  of  eternal  life,  as  that  of  Senator 
HILL.  He  had  reached  the  meridian  of  his  years.  He  stood  upon 
the  high  plateau  of  middle  life,  in  that  serene  atmosphere  where 
2H 


18  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

temptation  no  longer  assails,  where  the  clamorous  passions  no  more 
distract,  and  where  the  conditions  are  most  favorable  for  noble  and 
enduring  achievement.  His  upward  path  had  been  through  stormy 
adversity  and  contention  such  as  infrequently  falls  to  the  lot  of  men. 
Though  not  without  the  tendency  to  meditation,  reverie,  and  intro 
spection  which  accompanies  genius,  his  temperament  Avas  palestric. 
He  was  competitive  and  unpeaceful.  He  was  born  a  polemic  and 
controversialist,  intellectually  pugnacious  and  combative,  so  that 
he  was  impelled  to  defend  any  position  that  might  be  assailed  or  to 
attack  any  position  that  might  be  intrenched,  not  because  the  de 
fense  or  the  assault  were  essential,  but  because  the  positions  were 
maintained  and  that  those  who  held  them  became  by  that  fact 
alone  his  adversaries.  This  tendency  of  his  nature  made  his  orbit 
erratic.  He  was  metec^ric  rather  than  planetary,  and  flashed  with 
irregular  splendor  rather  than  shone  with  steady  and  penetrating 
rays.  His  advocacy  of  any  cause  was  fearless  to  the  verge  of  te 
merity.  He  appeared  to  be  indifferent  to  applause  or  censure  for 
their  own  sake.  He  accepted  intrepidly  any  cnoclusions  that  he 
reached,  without  inquiring  whether  they  were  politic  or  expedient. 

To  such  a  spirit  partisanship  was  unavoidable,  but  with  Senator 
HILL  it  did  not  degenerate  into  bigotry.  He  was  capable  of  broad 
generosity,  and  extended  to  his  opponents  the  same  unreserved 
candor  which  he  demanded  for  himself.  His  oratory  was  impetu 
ous  and  devoid  of  artifice.  He  was  not  a  posturer  nor  phrase 
monger.  He  was  too  intense,  too  earnest,  to  employ  the  cheap  and 
paltry  decorations  of  discourse.  He  never  reconnoitered  a  hostile 
position  nor  approached  it  by  stealthy  parallels.  He  could  not  lay 
siege  to  an  enemy,  nor  beleaguer  him,  nor  open  trenches,  and  sap 
and  mine.  His  method  was  the  charge  and  the  onset,  He  was  the 
Murat  of  senatorial  debate.  Not  many  men  of  this  generation 
have  been  better  equipped  for  parliamentary  warfare  than  he,  with 
his  commanding  presence,  his  sinewy  diction,  his  confident  and  im 
perturbable  self-control. 

But  in  the  maturity  of  his  powers  and  his  fame,  with  unmeasured 
opportunities  for  achievement  apparently  before  him,  with  great 
designs  unaccomplished,  surrounded  by  the  proud  and  affectionate 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.   VEST,  OF  MISSOURI.  19 

solicitude  of  a  great  constituency,  the  pallid  messenger  with  the 
inverted  torch  beckoned  him  to  depart.  There  are  few  scenes  in 
history  more  tragic  than  that  protracted  combat  with  death.  No 
man  had  greater  inducements  to  live.  But  in  the  long  struggle 
against  the  inexorable  advances  of  an  insidious  and  mortal  malady 
he  did  not  falter  nor  repine.  He  retreated  with  the  aspect  of  a  vic 
tor  ;  and  though  he  succumbed,  he  seemed  to  conquer.  His  sun 
went  down  at  noon,  but  it  sank  amid  the  prophetic  splendors  of  an 
eternal  dawn. 

With  more  than  a  hero's  courage,  with  more  than  a  martyr's 
fortitude,  he  waited  the  approach  of  the  inevitable  hour  and  went — 
to  the  undiscovered  country. 


Address  of  Mr.  VEST  of  Missouri. 

Mr.  President,  in  November,  1861, 1  first  met  Mr.  HILL  in  the 
provisional  congress  of  the  Confederate  States. 

The  Confederacy  was  just  entering  upon  its  brief  and  stormy  ex 
istence.  Its  capital  had  recently  been  removed  from  Montgomery  to 
Richmond,  and  Jefferson  Davis  by  a  majority  of  only  one  vote  in 
the  provisional  congress  had  been  elected  president  over  Robert 
Toombs. 

Surrounded  by  unexampled  difficulties,  moral  and  physical,  iso 
lated  and  alone,  with  the  prejudices  of  the  entire  civilized  world 
against  them,  and  confronted  in  battle  with  overwhelming  odds, 
the  Confederate  congress  was  called  upon  to  meet  not  only  the  ordi 
nary  questions  and  emergencies  attending  the  formation  of  a  new 
government,  but  to  grapple  also  with  the  exigencies  and  demands 
of  a  great  war,  a  war  not  for  conquest  or  policy,  but  for  existence. 

Mr.  HILL  had  earnestly  opposed  secession  up  to  the  last  mo 
ment,  but  finding  that  the  people  of  Georgia  were  determined  to 
separate  from  the  Union,  he  surrendered  his  personal  opinion, 
and  pledged  himself  fully  and  unreservedly  to  the  cause  of  the 
Confederacy. 

Opposed  to  secession,  with  habits  of  thought  and  education  ut 
terly  averse  to  revolution,  the  strange  vicissitudes  of  this  stormy 


20  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

period  soon  found  him  the  leader  of  the  administration  party  in 
the  Confederate  congress. 

Within  the  limits  of  an  address  like  this  it  would  neither  be 
possible  nor  proper  for  me  to  attempt  an  analysis  of  the  causes 
which  placed  Mr.  HILL  in  this  position ;  but  chief  among  them 
was  the  fact  that  having  once  pledged  himself  to  the  Confederacy 
he  could  see  no  hope  of  success  except  in  supporting  the  president 
chosen  by  the  people ;  and  having  so  declared  himself,  his  great 
ability  naturally  made  him  the  exponent  and  defender  of  the  pol 
icy  of  the  administration. 

Although  surrounded  by  difficulties  and  dangers  almost  without 
parallel,  and  confronted  by  a  common  peril,  it  was  very  soon  evi 
dent  that  personal  rivalry,  the  attrition  of  diverse  opinion,  and  the 
fierce  passions  of  a  revolutionary  era  had  built  up  most  determined 
opposition  to  Mr.  Davis  among  the  leaders  of  the  South. 

That  the  president  of  the  Confederate  States  was  loyal  to  the 
people  he  led,  in  every  fiber  of  his  nature,  cannot  be  doubted  save 
by  the  blindest  prejudice;  and  this  being  granted,  whether  he  was 
mistaken  in  the  conduct  of  the  war  or  in  the  policy  of  his  admin 
istration  should  be  a  sealed  book  to  all  those  who  sympathized  and 
suffered  with  him.  It  is  enough  to  say  now  that  never  was  any 
public  man  assailed  by  opponents  so  formidable  as  those  who  at 
tacked  the  president  of  the  Confederate  States. 

Toombs,  the  Mirabeau  of  the  revolution;  Yancey,  whose  lips 
were  touched  with  fire,  now  the  honey  of  persuasion  and  then  the 
venom  of  invective;  Wigfall,  brilliant,  aggressive,  and  relentless — 
this  was  the  great  triumvirate  which  assailed  Mr.  Davis's  adminis 
tration.  No  power  of  description  can  do  justice  to  the  ability,  elo 
quence,  or  bitterness  of  the  debates  in  which  Mr.  HILL,  single- 
handed  but  undaunted,  met  his  great  opponents.  As  the  war  pro 
gressed  and  the  fortunes  of  the  Confederacy  became  each  year  more 
desperate,  the  bitterness  and  violence  of  this  parliamentary  conflict 
increased,  until  scenes  of  actual  personal  collision  occurred  on  the 
floor  of  the  Confederate  senate. 

The  participants  have  passed  beyond  this  world's  judgment,  and 
the  issues  which  stirred  those  fierce  passions  are  dead  with  the  gov- 


ADDRESS  OF  ME.    VEST,  OF  MISSOURI.  21 

eminent  they  affected,  but  the  few  who  heard  these  debutes  can 
never  forget  the  matchless  eloquence  and  logic  that  mingled  with 
the  roar  of  hostile  guns  around  the  beleaguered  capital  of  the  Con 
federacy. 

Reluctant  to  embrace  the  Confederate  cause,  Mr.  HILL  was  the 
last  to  leave  it,  and  I  well  remember  that  on  my  way  from  Rich 
mond,  after  preparations  had  been  made  to  abandon  the  capital,  and 
it  was  well  known  that  the  cause  was  lost,  I  met  him  in  Columbus, 
Georgia,  engaged  iu  the  task  of  rallying  the  people  of  his  State  in 
what  was  then  a  hopeless  struggle.  When  I  told  him  of  recent 
events,  of  which  he  had  not  heard,  he  said,  "All  then  is  over,  and 
it  only  remains  for  me  to  share  the  fate  of  the  people  of  Georgia." 

How  well  he  redeemed  this  pledge  the  hearts  of  his  people  will 
answer.  Thrown  into  prison,  stripped  of  all  except  life,  his  courage 
never  failed,  and  in  the  darkest  hour,  when  the  wolves  were  tear 
ing  the  victims  of  the  war  as  the  coyote  the  wounded  deer,  his  elo 
quent  voice  was  never  for  one  instant  silent  until  Georgia,  torn  and 
bleeding  but  yet  splendid  and  beautiful,  once  more  stood  erect  in  the 
sisterhood  of  sovereign  States.  Nor  did  he  ever  under  any  tempta 
tion  so  far  forget  his  manhood  and  honor  as  to — 

Crook  the  pregnant  hinges  of  the  knee 
Where  thrift  may  follow  fawning. 

Accepting  fully  and  without  reservation  all  the  legitimate  conse 
quences  of  defeat,  and  resolutely  turning  to  the  future  with  its 
duties  and  obligations,  he  still  retained  his  self-respect,  and  never 

did  he — 

Bend  low,  and  iu  a  bondsman's  key, 

With  'bated  breath,  and  whispering  humbleness. 

Say  this— 

Fair  sir,  you  spit  on  me  on  Wednesday  last ; 

You  spurn'd  me  such  a  day ;  another  time 

You  call'd  me — dog ;  and  for  these  courtesies 

I'll  lend  you  thus  much  moneys. 

I  knew  Mr.  HILL  well,  and  under  circumstances  which  enabled 
me  to  judge  accurately  his  attributes  and  qualities.  Like  all  men 
of  great  intellect,  he  was  often  accused  of  inconsistency  because  he 
absolutely  refused  to  be  governed  by  the  routine  thought  of  others, 
and  had  always  the  courage  to  change  an  opinion  if  he  believed  it 


22  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

erroneous.  His  courage,  indeed,  both  of  conviction  and  expression, 
was  not  excelled  by  that  of  any  man,  and  his  fortitude  under  the 
greatest  misfortunes  extorted  the  admiration  of  even  his  enemies. 

In  an  age  when  calumny  and  slander  are  the  ordinary  weapons 
of  political  warfare,  and  personal  scandal  the  most  delicate  morsel 
for  the  public  appetite,  Mr.  HILL  was  not  exempt  from  the  attacks 
of  the  foul  and  loathsome  creatures  who  crawl  about  the  footsteps 
of  every  public  man,  but  he  bore  himself  always  with  a  dignity 
which  commanded  the  respect  of  all. 

And  what  can  be  said  of  the  heroism,  the  uncomplaining  and  un 
faltering  courage,  with  which  he  met  the  irony  of  fate  that  brought 
him  the  torture  of  a  lingering  death  in  the  destruction  of  that  tongue 
and  voice  which  had  so  often  awakened  with  their  eloquence  the 
echoes  of  this  Hall ! 

In  all  public  and  private  history  there  is  no  sadder  page  than 
this,  and  from  it  we  turn  away  in  silent  awe  and  reverence. 

In  his  political  opinions  Mr.  HILL  was  governed  by  the  teaching 
of  Madison,  and  no  one  who  heard  his  speech  in  the  Senate  on  May 
10,  1879,  the  greatest  speech  in  my  judgment  delivered  here  within 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  will  ever  forget  his  tribute  to  the 
statesman  who  can  be  justly  termed  the  father  of  the  Constitution. 
Said  Mr.  HILL: 

Sir,  I  want  to  say  here  now — and  I  feel  it  a  privilege  that  I  can  say  it — I  be 
lieve  all  the  angry  discussion,  all  the  troubles  that  have  come  upon  this  coun 
try,  have  sprung  from  the  failure  of  the  people  to  comprehend  the  one  great  fact 
that  the  Government  under  which  we  live  has  no  model;  it  is  partly  national 
and  partly  Federal ;  an  idea  which  was  to  the  Greeks  a  stumbling  block,  and 
to  the  Romans  foolishness,  and  to  the  Republican  party  an  insurmountable 
paradox,  but  to  the  patriots  of  this  country  it  is  the  power  of  liberty  unto  the 
salvation  of  the  people.  And  if  the  people  of  this  country  would  realize  that 
fact,  all  these  crazy  wranglings  as  to  whether  we  live  under  a  Federal  or  a 
national  Government  would  cease ;  they  would  understand  that  we  live  under 
both  ;  that  it  is  a  composite  Government ;  that  it  was  intended  by  the  framers 
that  the  Union  shall  be  faithful  in  defense  of  the  States,  that  the  States 
shall  be  harmonious  in  support  of  the  Union,  and  that  the  Union  and  the 
States  shall  be  faithful  and  harmonious  in  the  support  and  the  maintenance 
of  the  rights  and  the  liberty  of  the  people. 

Mr.  HILL  was  not  only  an  orator,  but  a  lawyer  in  the  front  of 
his  profession.  His  mind  was  broad  yet  analytical;  and  he  was 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MORGAN,  OF  ALABAMA.  23 

averse  to  all  radical  and  revolutionary  methods.  In  my  conception 
of  his  intellect  and  eloquence  I  always  associate  him  with  Virgniaud, 
the  leader  of  the  French  Girondists.  While  neither  will  stand  in 
history  with  the  greatest  party  leaders,  yet  as  orators  and  parlia 
mentary  debaters  they  are  entitled  to  places  in  the  first  rank. 

Ended  are  his  conflicts,  his  triumphs,  and  defeats.  The  strong, 
aggressive  intellect  is  at  rest.  The  clarion  voice  which  could  "  wield 
at  will  the  fierce  democracy"  is  hushed  forever. 

Out  upon  the  shoreless  ocean  his  bark  has  drifted;  but  it  has 
not  carried  away  all  of  the  life  that  has  ended.  Never  to  mortal 
hands  was  given  a  legacy  more  precious  than  that  left  to  the  peo 
ple  of  Georgia  in  the  memory  of  her  great  son  who  gave  his  life 
to  her  service  and  his  latest  prayer  to  her  honor  and  welfare. 

Orator,  statesman,  patriot,  farewell !  Let  Georgia  guard  well 
thy  grave ;  for  in  her  soil  rest  not  the  ashes  of  one  whose  life  has 
done  more  to  illustrate  her  manhood,  whose  genius  has  added  such 
glory  to  her  name. 


Address  of  Mr.  MORGAN,  of  Alabama. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  Alabama,  the  eldest  daughter  of  Georgia,  ap 
proaches  this  sad  occasion  with  a  proud  but  stricken  spirit.  I  will 
litter  no  word  in  praise  of  the  late  Senator  that  all  the  people  of 
that  State  and  of  the  South  will  not  sanction  with  heartfelt  re 
sponses. 

This  is  an  occasion  when  the  pure  serenity  of  truth  need  not 
be  clouded  with  undeserved  eulogy  of  the  dead.  It  would  be  an 
injustice  to  the  sincerity  of  his  character,  which  his  own  history 
and  example  would  condemn,  to  speak  of  the  deceased  Senator  in 
terms  that  would  be  misleading. 

A  strong  and  rugged  character  such  as  belonged  to  BENJAMIN 
H.  HILL  cannot  be  correctly  portrayed  in  the  soft  light  of  adula 
tion  or  by  mere  smoothness  of  expression  or  in  speech  tem 
pered  with  hesitancy  and  caution.  He  was  a  bold,  daring,  and 
powerful  man  in  his  intellectual  and  physical  organism,  and  his 
convictions  when  they  were  settled  after  due  consideration  were 


24  LIFE  AND  CHARACTEE  OF  BENJAMIN  JT.  HILL. 

always  the  guide  to  his  action  and  the  measure  of  his  duty.  He 
thought  much,  and  examined  with  carefulness  every  important 
question  that  engaged  his  attention. 

When  he  was  in  error  he  was  dangerous  because  of  the  fertility 
of  his  resources  in  argument,  his  zeal  and  firmness,  his  tact  in  de 
bate,  and  the  aggressive  energy  of  his  mind.  When  he  was  right 
he  was  almost  invincible. 

These  qualities  naturally  fitted  him  for  the  highest  range  of 
achievements  as  an  advocate  and  leader;  but  such  was  his  independ 
ence  of  all  control  by  the  thoughts  of  others  that  he  sometimes 
sacrificed  the  leadership  of  men  whom  he  could  have  controlled 
had  he  made  concessions  that  were  not  of  vital  consequence  to  him 
or  to  them. 

The  people  often  made  concessions  to  him  to  avoid  controversy 
with  one  whom  they  greatly  admired  and  were  attached  to  with 
affectionate  regard.  The  following  of  the  people  under  his  leader 
ship  did  not  always  result  from  their  approval  of  his  views,  even 
on  great  questions. 

He  was,  in  the  American  sense,  a  great  popular  orator,  whose 
powers  were  best  adapted  to  great  questions  and  important  occa 
sions  in  which  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people  were  concerned 
or  the  honor  of  the  country  was  at  stake.  In  such  discussions  he 
sometimes  rose  to  astonishing  heights  of  sublimity  of  thought  and 
speech,  which  carried  his  audience  with  him  until  they  seemed  to 
lose  control  of  themselves.  He  had  no  faculty  of  imitation,  and 
his  style  of  oratory  was  all  his  own.  He  had  no  model  in  rhetoric 
or  logic  that  he  was  willing  to  copy.  He  seemed  to  have  no 
thoughts  that  were  his  merely  by  adoption  ;  they  were  the  offspring 
of  his  own  mind.  His  eloquence  was  little  more  than  a  fervid 
statement  of  the  facts  or  reasoning  which  had  brought  his  mind  to 
the  conclusions  which  he  was  supporting;  but  it  was  so  intense  as 
to  become  almost  irresistible. 

When  speaking  to  the  people,  in  the  period  just  preceding  the 
war,  when  the  argument  was  closed  and  a  resort  to  other  methods 
of  defense  had  become  a  necessity,  as  they  viewed  the  situation,  he 
turned  their  thoughts  to  the  duties  and  dangers  of  the  people 


ADDRESS  OP  MR.  MORGAN,  OF  ALABAMA.  25 

of  the  South  and  of  their  posterity.  He  reviewed  with  pathetic 
ferver  their  fidelity  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  in  all 
former  times  of  danger  and  trial — in  the  second  war  of  Inde 
pendence  with  (irreat  Britain;  in  the  wars  with  the  Indians,  who 
were  supported  by  British  and  Spanish  emissaries,  and  inspired  by 
the  savage  eloquence  of  Tecumseh ;  and  in  the  war  with  Mexico; 
and,  feeling  that  they  were  threatened  with  servile  insurrection  and 
ultimate  degradation  and  the  loss  of  all  protection  under  the  Con 
stitution,  he  urged  them  to  their  duty  with  such  power  that — 

Each  ravished  bosom  felt  the  high  alarms, 
And  all  their  huruing  pulses  heat  to  arms. 

Mr.  HILL  was  a  lawyer  of  great  ability,  but  his  self-reliant 
habits  of  reasoning  led  him  to  seek  for  arguments  rather  than  for 
precedents  to  support  the  cause  he  was  advocating.  The  special- 
jury  system  of  Georgia  was  productive  of  great  alertness  and  skill 
in  forensic  discussion  among  the  lawyers  of  Georgia,  and  in  these 
he  excelled.  Senators  will  remember  how  much  he  relied  on  this 
faculty  even  in  the  discussion  of  questions  of  the  most  intricate 
character.  He  always  spoke  extemporaneously,  and  seldom  made 
any  use  even  of  notes  of  reference  to  authorities. 

In  the  strenuous  controversy  of  high  debate  he  was  sometimes 
severe,  but  never  with  willful  injustice  to  those  opposed  to  him. 

The  only  soil  of  his  fair  virtue's  gloss 

Was  a  sharp  wit,  match'd  with  too  blunt  a  will ; 

Whose  edge  none  spurned  that  came  within  his  power. 

His  political  career  was  shaped  by  the  events  of  the  most  diffi 
cult  and  momentous  period  in  American  history.  The  success  of 
the  rebellion  of  1776  by  the  strength  of  the  Union  it  established 
made  the  success  of  the  rebellion  of  1860  impossible.  But  the 
questions  that  were  left  open  after  the  first  rebellion  to  rankle  in 
the  bosoms  of  the  people  made  the  second  rebellion  and  the  war 
that  followed  it  unavoidable. 

Mr.  HILL,  in  common  with  other  men  of  that  period,  under 
stood  that  the  third  generation  of  American  citizens  were  forced 
to  settle  by  arms  the  questions  that  the  first  generation  could  not 
settle  in  the  beginning  without  giving  up  all  hope  of  uniting  the 


26  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

States  in  a  Federal  Government  under  the  new  Constitution.  He, 
like  many  others,  was  compelled  by  a  sense  of  duty  to  change  his 
attitude  on  questions  of  policy  to  meet  the  dangers  as  they  arose 
and  drifted  with  the  current  of  events.  His  fated  duty  and  pur 
pose  forced  him  into  resistance  to  the  inevitable,  but  the  least  de 
structive  measure  of  resistance  was  what  he  always  sought  to 
adopt.  Under  such  circumstances  he  was  then,  and  more  re 
cently,  charged  with  reckless  inconsistency. 

That  was  not  a  just  criticism  either  of  his  character  or  his  con 
duct.  He  was  so  far  free  from  that  weakness  which  is  dignified 
with  the  title  of  pride  of  opinion  that  he  did  not  hesitate  to  aban 
don  his  opinions  and  to  disprove  their  soundness  when  subsequent 
reflection  satisfied  him  of  the  error.  It  was  this  trait  that  gave 
color  to  the  idea  that  he  was  vacillating  in  his  political  convic 
tions. 

If  he  were  here  and  I  could  render  to  him  in  person  the  justice 
which  he  would  most  appreciate,  as  I  render  to  his  memory  what 
I  believe  to  be  most  true,  I  would  say  of  his  course  in  the  begin 
ning  of  the  civil  war  and  during  the  discussion  of  the  events  that 
led  to  it  that  no  man  then  living  was  more  sincerely  devoted  to 
the  American  Union  than  he  was ;  no  man  gave  up  the  hope  of 
its  perpetuity  with  more  intense  sorrow  than  he  did  ;  no  man 
more  firmly  believed  than  he  did  that  the  Southern  States  had 
just  grounds  for  their  secession  ;  no  man  deplored  more  sincerely 
than  he  did  that  secession  and  war  were  made  inevitable  by  the 
very  provisions  of  the  Constitution  that  men  were  sworn  to  sup 
port,  and  that  could  not  in  fact  be  supported  in  its  provisions  re 
lating  to  slavery  except  by  the  power  of  the  sword  as  against  the 
will  of  a  great  majority  of  the  American  people;  and  when  the 
crisis  came  no  man  was  firmer  than  Mr.  HILL  in  supporting  with 
his  vote  in  the  convention  of  Georgia  the  ordinance  of  secession, 
against  which  he  had  entered  his  protest,  but  to  which  he  gave  his 
assent  when  his  brethren  had  resolved  that  it  was  the  only  remedy 
left  open  to  them. 

This  is  the  true  history  of  his  motives  and  feelings  in  that  time 
of  severe  trial,  which  so  honorably  explain  his  conduct.  In  the 


ADDRESS  OF  MB.  MORGAN,  OF  ALABAMA.  27 

light  of  these  facts  there  is  a  moral  heroism  in  his  course  which 
raises  his  fame  even  to  a  higher  eminence  than  that  which  is  so 
freely  accorded  to  him  for  his  acknowledged  abilities.  His  fidelity 
to  the  Confederate  States  could  not  have  been  greater  if  he  had 
been  the  sole  responsible  author  of  the  secession  of  each  of  the 
States.  His  devotion  to  that  cause  after  he  had  espoused  it,  and 
to  the  people  after  they  were  involved  in  war,  appeals  to  their 
hearts  for  a  tribute,  which  they  freely  render  to  his  memory,  far 
exceeding  eulogy  and  praise,  the  tribute  of  gratitude  enriched  by 
love.  None  but  the  truest  of  men  could  have  won  this  high  dis 
tinction  from  the  people  of  the  South.  He  has  won  it  worthily, 
and  it  will  continue  to  bloom  amid  the  leaves  of  the  chaplet  with 
which  they  have  crowned  him  for  immortality. 

The  people  of  the  South  withdrew  from  the  Union  because  they 
believed  that  the  Government  of  the  United  States  had  no  longer 
the  will  or  the  power  to  protect  their  constitutional  rights.  They 
went  out  by  the  separate  and  independent  action  of  each  of  the 
eleven  seceding  States.  Their  union  into  a  confederacy  was  itself 
a  great  task  upon  the  statesmanship  of  the  leading  men  of  the 
South.  Along  with  this  task  came  the  instant  and  inevitable 
work  of  preparing  for  a  great  war. 

In  all  these  high  duties  Mr.  HILL  was  an  active  and  leading 
participant  as  a  representative  of  the  State  of  Georgia. 

The  condition  of  these  eleven  States  was  perilous  in  the  ex 
treme,  and  required  the  highest  #rder  of  capacity  for  government 
to  direct  them  through  these  dangerous  straits.  The  individual 
States  had  armies  in  the  field  engaged  in  conflicts  of  arms  before 
the  Confederacy  could  be  organized  under  a  provisional  govern 
ment. 

Then  immediately  came  the  great  struggle,  in  which  all  the 
people  of  all  races,  with  only  a  few  individual  exceptions,  were 
united  for  weal  or  for  woe.  There  was  nothing  on  which  the  Con 
federacy  could  rely  for  success  except  the  devotion  of  the  people  to 
the  cause  which  united  them.  Nothing  was  organized,  and  the 
material  of  war  consisted  only  of  resolute  men.  Without  a  mili 
tary  chest,  or  arms,  munitions,  equipments,  transportation,  or  sup- 


28  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  KENJANIN  H.  HILL. 

plies,  the  military  resources  of  the  Confederacy  consisted  of  ten 
millions  of  people,  of  whom  more  than  a  third  were  slaves  whose 
release  from  bondage  depended  on  the  success  of  the  arms  of  the 
United  States. 

This  population  could  not  furnish  and  keep  in  the  field  more 
than  a  half  million  of  men  even  for  a  short  campaign.  Its  total 
arms-bearing  strength  could  not  exceed  a  million  of  men,  within 
the  extreme  limits  of  military  levies,  during  the  whole  period  of  a 
four  years'  war.  Their  arms  and  ordnance  stores,  munitions,  pro 
visions,  and  transportation  were  to  be  dug  from  the  mines  and  the 
fields,  and  hewn  from  the  forests,  and  constructed  from  the  native 
material.  They  had  to  raise  the  cotton  and  wool  for  clothing  their 
armies,  and  to  build  factories  to  convert  them  into  cloth.  There 
was  not  a  thousand  thoroughly  educated  soldiers  in  these  eleven 
States.  They  had  little  money  and  no  credit  abroad.  They  were 
shut  in  on  land  and  sea  by  great  armies  and  navies.  They  had  no 
fleet  and  no  commerce.  They  had  not  the  genuine  sympathy  of 
any  nation  in  the  world. 

Their  adversaries  were  men  of  their  own  blood;  powerful,  war 
like,  rich,  determined ;  aroused  with  enthusiastic  zeal  for  the 
Union  and  the  supremacy  of  its  laws  ;  supplied  with  every  re 
source  of  warfare,  and  supported  by  the  sympathy  and  assistance, 
of  many  other  great  nations,  whose  people  recruited  their  armies. 
They  could  put  in  the  field  as  many  soldiers  as  the  confederacy 
could  possibly  muster,  and  still  «have  a  reserve  of  population  of 
20,000,000  from  which  to  draw  other  armies. 

This  brief  view  of  the  situation  will  sufficiently  show  the  gen 
eral  outline  of  the  labors  that  Mr.  HILL  and  his  colleagues  in  the 
Confederate  congress  were  called  to  perform.  They  courageously 
took  up  the  task,  which  seemed  too  great  for  human  endeavor. 

Their  debates  are  not  published,  but  thfc  tradition  that  has  reached 
us  is  that  they  were  never  excelled  in  ability  and  majestic  eloquence. 
It  may  be  better  that  they  have  faded  from  human  recollection. 

There  was  little  of  personal  rivalry  in  the  Confederate  congress. 
The  weight  of  responsibility  resting  upon  all  alike  kept  each  in 
dividual  equal  upon  the  common  plane  of  duty.  It  was  the  per- 


ADDRESS  OF  ME.  MORGAN,  OF  ALABAMA.  29 

formance  of  duty,  and  not  daring  enterprise  or  moving  eloquence, 
that  was  the  test  of  a  man's  devotion  to  the  common  cause  and  of 
his  ability  to  serve  it  in  that  congress. 

According  to  this  standard  Mr.  HILL  was  honorably  distin 
guished  among  his  colleagues,  and  was  applauded  by  the  people. 
The  regard  of  the  people  for  him  far  exceeded  mere  admiration. 
There  was  a  strong  bond  of  affection  between  them.  All  the  sym 
pathies  of  his  high  nature  were  aroused  by  their  sufferings,  and 
grew  into  homage  for  their  virtues  as  he  witnessed  their  fortitude 
and  patience  in  the  terrible  trials  of  the  war.  He  saw  that  their 
wealth  was  freely  given  to  the  Confederacy;  that  they  fed  and 
clothed  the  army  without  the  hope  of  compensation ;  that  the  poor, 
the  widowed,  and  the  orphaned  took  refuge  and  found  comfort  in 
their  cheerful  benevolence;  that  they  gave  up  their  houses  for  hos 
pitals,  and  gathered  from  the  fields  and  forests  the  simple  remedies 
for  the  wounded  and  sick  which  took  the  place  of  the  ordinary 
hospital  supplies  and  medicines  which  were  denied  to  them.  He 
saw  that  the  women  raised  bread  in  the  sun-beaten  fields,  with  plow 
and  hoe,  and  divided  it  between  their  children  at  home  and  their 
husbands  and  children  in  the  army.  He  saw  the  mothers  sending 
their  sons  forth  to  recruit  the  armies  as  soon  as  they  were  able  to 
bear  arms,  and  oftentimes  to  take  the  places  of  fathers  and  elder 
brothers  who  had  fallen  in  battle.  He  rejoiced  in  the  heroic;  spirit 
of  the  people,  and  they  felt  that  he  was  true  to  them. 

The  end  came ;  and  with  it  came  the  dawn  of  a  new  hope,  only 
to  spread  its  wings  of  light  for  a  moment,  and  then  to  fold  them 
again  in  darkness. 

With  peace  came  the  promise  of  restoration  to  civil  liberty  as  it 
is  proudly  impersonated  in  the  character  of  the  American  citizen. 
That  promise  contained  the  essential  part  of  all  for  which  the 
Southern  people  had  fought  for  four  weary  and  sorrow-burdened 
years.  They  gave  up  the  institution  which  was  the  provoking 
cause  of  the  great  conflict  of  arms,  and  felt  assured  that  there  would 
no  longer  be  occasion  or  excuse  for  a  denial  to  them  of  the  equal 
rights  enjoyed  by  other  American  citizens.  They  laid  down  their 
arms  and  gave  their  paroles  upon  these  express  conditions.  But 


30  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

they  were  grievously  disappointed,  and,  having  disarmed,  they  had 
no  longer  the  privilege  of  making  honorable  sacrifices  to  vindicate 
their  rights.  They  brooded  in  the  darkness  of  a  hopeless  doom 
over  a  loss  that  was  seemingly  irreparable. 

On  such  occasions  men  have  often  come  forward  who  seem  to 
have  been  fitted  and  prepared  beforehand  for  the  work.  They  ask 
the  confidence  of  the  people,  and  if  they  have  the  faith  to  give  it 
and  the  courage  to  follow  they  are  led  by  them  into  a  happy  de 
liverance. 

Among  this  class  of  leaders  in  the  South  Mr.  HILL  was  con 
spicuous.  In  the  events  which  followed  the  surrender  of  1865  his 
courage  and  eloquence  were  displayed  in  their  grandest  power  as  a 
leader  of  the  people.  He  was  maddened  with  the  thought  that 
the  surrender  of  a  people  who  had  struggled  so  gallantly  and  suf 
fered  so  much,  but  were  yet  able  to  have  protracted  the  war  in 
definitely,  did  not  bring  to  them  the  rights  which  were  expressly 
included  in  the  capitulation.  With  anguish  of  soul  he  witnessed 
the  wrongs  and  humiliation  inflicted  on  them  under  the  policy  of 
the  reconstruction  of  the  seceding  States,  by  which  they  were  held 
subject  as  vassals  under  the  laws  of  Avar  when  they  had  been 
promised  restoration  under  the  laws  of  peace. 

When  the  military  power  was  thus  made  to  supplant  the  civil 
power  in  Georgia,  and  the  disarmed  people  were  incapable  of  re 
sistance,  he  did  not  despair.  He  felt  that  there  was  in  the  Ameri 
can  heart  a  forum  where  the  plea  for  justice  could  still  be  heard, 

J.  «/ 

and  he  boldly  demanded  an  audience  there.  Through  such  assist 
ance  he  determined  that  Georgia  should  be  set  free  from  military 
despotism  and  foreign  rule.  He  united  the  people  of  Georgia  in 
a  crusade  against  tyranny.  They  broke  their  chains,  and  he  led 
them  in  a  triumphant  march  to  victory.  With  no  other  weapon 
but  the  freeman's  ballot  they  drove  out  their  oppressors. 

His  strength,  when  thus  called  into  action,  was  a  sublime  ex 
pression  of  the  depth  of  feeling  and  suffering  of  a  great  spirit 
maddened  by  a  sense  of  cruel  wrong. 

As  when  Alcides     *     *     *     felt  the  euvenom'd  robe,  and  tore 
Through  pain  up  by  the  roots  Thessaliau  pines ; 
And  Lichas  from  the  top  of  (Eta  threw 
Into  the  Euboic  sea — 


0' 

[UNIVERSITY 
\  /> 

ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MORGAN,  OF  ALABAJKg^T .7*1,31 

so  did  this  maddened  patriot  tear  from  the  bosom  of  his  ""native 
State  the  deep-rooted  grafts  of  military  despotism  and  cast  them 
out  from  her  borders.  Neither  Garibaldi  nor  Gambetta  were  more 
patriotic  or  more  intrepid  than  he  was,  and  the  nations  of  the  earth 
have  recently  mourned  at  their  funerals.  This  homage  was  given 
them  because  they  had  lifted  up  the  heads  of  despairing  peoples  in 
times  of  national  calamity,  and  reinspired  them  with  hope,  courage, 
and  self-reliance.  And  for  this  cause  the  South  mourns  at  the  obse 
quies  of  her  patriot  son,  and  embalms  his  memory  with  her  tears. 

It  is  not  appropriate  to  utter  all  the  praises  our  hearts  would 
fain  bestow  upon  him.  We  prefer  to  leave  something  unsaid  and 
undone  for  the  present  time  to  signify  a  tenderness  of  feeling  for 
our  dead  who  were  great  and  good  that  does  not  now  admit  of 
complete  expression. 

I  witnessed  the  burial  of  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL  in  the  bosom  of 
his  native  State.  The  people  were  there  in  observant  masses  look 
ing  sadly  on  at  the  simple  cortege  that  escorted  his  remains  to  the 
cemetery.  They  seemed  to  feel  that  he  had  died  much  too  soon  to 
gather  the  full  wealth  of  his  own  fame  or  to  confer  on  them  the 
full  riches  of  his  counsels.  They  seem  to  think  of  him  as  of  a 
warrior  slain  by  chance  when  he  had  put  on  his  armor  to  win  his 
greatest  victories ;  as  an  eagle  stricken  in  its  boldest  flight ;  as  an 
oak  riven  with  lightning  in  the  fullness  of  its  beauty  and  strength 
while  spreading  its  leaves  to  welcome  the  summer  showers.  They 
were  proud  that  their  sorrow  was  honoring  alike  to  the  living  and 
the  dead ;  but  they  were  grieved  that  the  sad  occasion  had  so  soon 
arrived.  They  believed,  and  I  do,  that  he  had  not  attained  to  the 
fullness  of  his  growth  in  Intellectual  power  and  that  he  left  unfin 
ished  many  noble  plans  for  the  good  of  the  country. 

Mr.  HILL  was  not  always  wise,  yet  few  were  wiser  than  he.  It 
cannot  be  said  of  him  that  he  was  always  right,  but  it  can  be  truly 
said  that  he  was  never  wrong  from  willfulness,  for  lack  of  courage, 
or  from  inattention  to  the  requirements  of  duty. 

Discarding  all  blind  confidence  in  fate,  and  deeply  sensible  of 
responsibility  to  God,  his  noble  and  just  spirit  left  this  brief  exist 
ence  for  one  that  is  eternal,  satisfied  with  the  past  and  confident  of 
the  future. 


32  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

Though  his  work  here  was  not  finished,  as  we  view  such  matters, 
he  was  not  reluctant  to  lay  down  the  great  charge  intrusted  to  him 
by  a  fond  constituency ;  for  he  believed  that  the  Master  had  called 
him  to  other  duties  which,  as  compared  with  his  duties  in  the  Sen 
ate,  would  confer  on  him  "a  far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight 
of  glory,"  and  so  assured,  he  departed  hence  with  rejoicing. 


Address  of  Mr.  SHERMAN,  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  We  are  often  called  upon  in  the  midst  of  our 
public  duties  to  commemorate  the  death  of  an  associate  who  has 
shared  with  us  in  the  labor  and  responsibility  of  official  trust.  But 
it  rarely  happens  that  the  fatal  shaft  falls  upon  a  Senator  of  such 
physical  strength  and  mental  vigor  as  Senator  HILL.  He  had 
scarcely  yet  attained  the  full  measure  of  national  reputation  to  which 
his  admitted  abilities  would  have  raised  him.  The  insidious  dis 
ease  which  sapped  his  life  not  only  filled  his  home,  his  family,  and 
his  State  with  pain  and  sorrow,  but  caused  a  sigh  of  sadness  and 
respectful  sympathy  in  every  household  where  his  patient  suifering 
and  premature  death  were  known. 

I  am  not  able  to  speak  of  Senator  HILL  with  the  fullness  of 
information  that  his  colleagues  and  personal  associates  have  done. 
They  tell  us  how  he  won  and  held  in  the  highest  degree  the  respect 
and  esteem  of  his  associates,  that  he  has  been  honored  with  the  con 
fidence  of  the  people  of  his  native  State,  and  by  their  suifrages  for 
years  has  filled  with  credit  many  positions  of  public  trust.  We 
knew  him  as  he  appeared  among  us,  a  ready  debater,  an  ardent  but 
courteous  antagonist,  strong,  earnest,  and  convincing. 

He  came  into  the  House  of  Representatives  with  a  high  reputa 
tion,  and  both  there  and  in  the  Senate  maintained  and  advanced  it 
so  that  when  the  premonition  of  death  came  upon  him  he  stood 
as  high  in  the  respect  and  confidence  of  his  associates  as  any  mem 
ber  of  this  body. 

He  was  a  native  of  Georgia,  educated  in  one  of  her  universities, 
and  learned  in  the  practice  of  law  in  her  courts.  He  was  distinctly 


ADDRESS  OF  MB.  SHERMAN,  OF  OHIO.  33 

a  type  of  the  Southern  mind  in  its  best  relations  to  the  affairs  of 
life. 

Though  his  early  life  was  spent  under  the  influences  of  the  insti 
tutions  of  his  native  State,  and  though  its  industries  were  then  con 
fined  mainly  to  the  pursuits  of  agriculture,  yet  in  his  early  manhood 
he  appreciated  the  important  position  which  Georgia  holds,  as  con 
taining  within  her  bounds  the  chief  elements  for  manufacturing 
industries  as  well  as  a  fruitful  soil  for  agricultural  products. 

He  was,  as  I  understood  him,  in  early  life  attached  to  the  Whig 
party,  and  mainly  on  account  of  the  well-known  position  of  that 
party  in  favor  of  the  protective  policy.  He  sympathized  heartily 
with  the  present  prospects  that  in  Georgia  there  will  be  a  rapid  de 
velopment  of  her  natural  mineral  resources,  and  that  the  cotton 
grown  on  her  genial  soil  and  that  of  the  "  Sunny  South  "  will  be 
made  ready  for  her  Southern  looms  and  spindles. 

He  had  no  regrets  for  the  past  in  the  brightening  prospects  of  the 
future,  but  looked  to  his  State,  often  called  the  "  Empire  State  of 
the  South,"  as  likely  to  be  improved  and  advanced  by  the  results 
of  the  war  to  a  higher  plane  of  wealth,  strength,  and  population. 

His  hope  was  that  his  State  would  rise  with  fresh  vigor  from  the 
misfortune  and  devastation  of  war  by  the  building  of  railroads,  the 
opening  of  mines  of  coal  and  iron,  and  by  the  tide  of  immigration 
and  labor  from  other  States  as  well  as  from  foreign  lands. 

Senator  HILL  was  consistently  a  Union  man  before  the  war.  He 
resisted  the  secession  of  his  State  until  after  the  ordinance  of  seces 
sion  was  passed.  While  his  views  of  the  construction  of  the  Con 
stitution  in  later  years  differed  widely  from  my  own,  yet  I  never 
doubted  the  sincerity  of  his  opinions.  To  the  questions  that  grew 
out  of  the  war  I  do  not  feel  at  liberty  even  to  allude,  because  on 
these  questions  we  were  widely  apart  in  opinion. 

Whatever  his  views  on  any  subject,  he  always  put  them  forth 
with  the  utmost  vigor  and  clearness  of  expression.  Endowed  by 
nature  with  an  ardent  temperament,  and  cultivated  by  education  in 
the  use  of  all  the  gifts  of  speech,  he  defended  his  opinions  with 
consummate  ability.  Whether  in  attack  or  in  defense,  he  was  an 
adversary  to  command  respect  in  any  form  of  debate.  He  repre- 
3  H 


34  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

sented  in  a  marked  degree  that  first  quality  of  an  orator — earnest 
ness.  His  training  in  the  practice  of  the  law  made  him  familiar, 
to  a  wide  extent,  with  precedents  and  decisions,  upon  which  he  drew 
copiously  in  his  arguments  upon  questions  involving  Constitutional 
law  and  legislative  and  judicial  power.  His  speeches  were  more 
remarkable  for  their  clear  reason  than  for  their  rhetorical  felicity, 
and  it  may  be  said  that  the  bent  of  his  mind  was  in  the  direction 
of  dialectics  rather  than  of  literary  effort. 

As  a  man  of  fine  natural  gifts  and  high  accomplishments,  his 
loss  will  be  felt  not  only  in  his  own  State  and  neighborhood,  but 
in  the  councils,  of  the  nation  ;  and  after  more  than  half  a  century 
of  a  well-spent  life  his .  countrymen  will  recognize,  even  in  its 
close,  the  elements  of  a  well-rounded  career. 


Address  of  Mr.  VOORHEES,  of  Indiana. 

Mr.  PEESIDENT  :  We  halt  to-day  for  a  few  moments  in  the  great 
journey  to  say  the  last  farewell  words  over  a  new-made  grave.  A 
comrade  in  the  battle  of  life  has  fallen  in  this  high  forum.  The 
skeleton  foot  of  death  enters  with  familiar  step  the  loftiest  as  well 
as  the  humblest  stations  of  human  life,  and  again  it  has  invaded 
the  floor  of  the  Senate.  But  yesterday  a  commanding  presence 
moved  in  our  midst  which  we  shall  see  no  more ;  a  voice  of  pow 
erful  eloquence  was  heard  which  is  now  hushed  forever  ;  a  tower 
ing  intellect  shed  its  light  on  human  affairs  which  now  has  joined 
other  councils  than  those  of  earth.  A  great  and  living  force  has 
gone  out  from  this  body  and  from  every  scene  of  mortal  concern. 

Others  have  more  fully  spoken  of  Senator  HILL'S  life  and  pub 
lic  career  than  will  be  expected  from  me,  but  of  his  intellectual 
strength,  his  will,  and  his  courage  I  have  deep  and  lasting  im 
pressions.  I  first  met  him  during  the  reconstruction  of  the 
Southern  States  which  followed  the  war.  As  a  member  of  an  in 
vestigating  committee  appointed  by  Congress  I  visited  Atlanta, 
and  there  met  Mr.  HILL  for  the  first  time.  His  appearance  and 
bearing  strongly  attracted  my  attention.  The  still  intensity  of  his 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.    FOOEHEES,  OF  INDIANA  35 

pale,  strong  face,  his  firm,  determined  features,  and  the  clear  light 
of  his  steady,  inquiring,  and,  as  it  seemed  to  me  then,  somewhat 
distrustful  blue  eyes,  combined  to  make  on  my  mind  the  vivid  and 
striking  portrait  of  a  remarkable  man.  I  recall  vividly  now  the 
self-poise,  the  reserve,  the  circumspection  with  which  he  spoke  of 
public  questions,  and  sought  to  shelter  from  hurtful  legislation  all 
the  interests  of  his  people.  He  was  not  then  taking  part  in  na 
tional  politics,  and  I  doubt  if  such  was  his  intention,  but  when  he 
was  some  time  afterward  elected  to  the  House  of  Representatives 
my  opinion  of  his  abilities  and  force  was  only  confirmed  when  he 
immediately  took  a  conspicuous  leadership  in  that  body. 

Of-  the  merits  of  the  heated  controversies  in  which  he  engaged 
of  course  I  do  not  speak  in  this  presence,  but  that  he  was  the  peer 
of  the  ablest  whom  he  met  no  one  will  deny.  His  fame  was  at 
once  national,  and  his  State  only  waited  for  the  first  opportunity 
to  bestow  upon  him  its  highest  honor.  After  Mr.  HILL  became  a 
member  of  this  body  his  daily  movements  and  every  word  he  ut 
tered  were  marked  and  scrutinized  as  those  of  a  leading  and  im 
portant  actor  in  public  affairs.  He  had  been  a  representative  man 
under  an  order  of  things  and  an  attempted  government  which  had 
crumbled  to  the  dust,  and  he  could  not  be  less  than  a  representa 
tive  character  here.  To  me  it  was  always  a  curious  and  most  in 
teresting  study  to  watch  the  workings  of  his  brilliant  and  fertile 
mind  while  he  grasped  the  duties  and  the  ideas  of  the  living  pres 
ent,  and  at  the  same  time  with  reverent  care  and  devotion  pro 
tected  the  motives  and  the  memory  of  a  cause  into  which  he  had 
poured  the  whole  ardor  of  his  earlier  manhood.  His  mind  was 
essentially  daring  and  progressive,  and  he  did  not  seek  to  cling  to 
principles  and  methods  which  had  been  tried  and  failed ;  he 
simply  guarded  well  the  honor  of  that  vast  cemetery  in  which  the 
dead  past  lies  buried. 

Standing,  as  I  once  heard  him  say,  in  the  ashes  of  desolation, 
he  still  looked  forward  with  an  unfaltering  trust  to  the  dawn  of  a 
new  day  of  glory  for  his  section,  and  of  union  and  progress  for 
the  entire  country.  He  was  a  ready  mounted  knight,  not  looking 
back  to  past  fields  of  encounter,  but  prompt  to  enter  the  lists  when- 


36  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

ever  or  wherever  opened.  He  believed  with  Edmund  Burke  that 
statesmanship  was  the  science  of  circumstances,  and  he  addressed 
himself  with  wisdom  and  courage  to  the  situation  in  which  he 
found  himself  placed.  This  sometimes  caused  him  to  be  accused 
of  inconsistency  by  those  who  forget  that  the  circumstances  which 
govern  the  conduct  of  the  statesman  are  themselves  inconsistent 
from  day  to  day.  The  law  of  the  world  is  mutation. 

History  is  a  never-ending  panorama,  in  which  the  pictures  are 
never  the  same.  The  same  grand  purposes  and  fact  of  progression 
are  there,  but  the  methods  of  public  policy,  the  ways  and  means 
whereby  governments  are  created  and  sustained,  the  measures  which 
from  time  to  time  best  promote,  foster,  and  encourage  the  welfare 
of  the  people,  are  as  various  as  the  different  conditions  of  mankind 
which  have  called  them  forth.  The  principles  which  have  governed 
one  generation  may  have  to  be  discarded  for  the  safety  and  pros 
perity  of  the  next.  The  wisdom  of  to-day  may  be  the  folly  of  to 
morrow  in  the  administrative  measures  of  peace  as  well  as  in  the 
tactics  and  strategy  of  war. 

Senator  HILL  always  appeared  as  much  alive  to  this  great  fact 
as  any  man  I  ever  met  in  public  life.  He  was  always  found  on  the 
skirmish  line  of  advanced  and  advancing  ideas,  and  in  the  constant 
encounters  which  necessarily  take  place  on  that  line  in  the  field  of 
thought,  the  lightning  as  it  leaps  from  the  sky  is  hardly  more  bril 
liant  or  rapid  than  were  the  operations  of  his  mind.  Indeed,  so 
prolific  was  his  genius  when  heated  by  the  combat  of  discussion 
that  it  seemed  at  times  to  partake  of  the  eccentricity  of  the  light 
ning  as  well  as  of  its  brilliancy  and  power.  But  he  was  never  al 
lured  in  his  most  daring  flights  so  far  that  he  could  not  upon  the 
instant  return  to  meet  his  adversary  at  the  precise  point  in  issue. 
It  was  this  quality,  in  great  measure,  and  the  intensity  with  which 
he  could  identify  himself  with  the  actual  matter  in  hand,  regardless 
of  what  the  past  had  demanded  of  him,  which  made  him  the  for 
midable  antagonist  and  the  resistless  orator  at  the  bar,  on  the  hus 
tings,  and  in  the  halls  of  legislation. 

Sir,  a  character  such  as  I  speak  of  has  never  in  any  age  failed  to 
encounter  determined  opposition  and  deep-seated  hostility.  The 


ADDRESS  OF  ME.    VOORHEES,  OF  INDIANA.  37 

overthrown  antagonist,  the  routed  adversary,  never  forget  and  are 
often  slow  to  forgive.  The  impetuous  assault  in  debate,  the  fierce 
invective,  the  merciless  sarcasm,  leave  wounds  which  seldom  alto 
gether  heal.  This  was  doubtless  true  of  the  public  career  of  the 
bold,  aggressive  Senator  whose  loss  we  deplore ;  and  yet  to  those 
who  knew  him  well  in  private  life  how  gentle,  considerate,  and 
kind  were  his  words  and  his  ways !  A  simple  circumstance  of  an 
accidental  character  brought  about  relations  between  us  which  re 
vealed  him  to  me  in  a  light  I  did  not  expect,  although  I  had  been 
acquainted  with  him  for  years. 

I  saw  the  self-absorbed,  distant  manner  melt  away  into  the  gen 
tlest  sunshine.  I  realized  that  when  he  gave  his  confidence  at  all 
he  gave  it  entire ;  that  when  he  trusted  he  did  so  without  res 
ervation,  and  with  an  unlimited  faith.  While  perhaps  "  he  was 
lofty  and  sour  to  those  who  loved  him  not,"  yet  he  had,  in  a  boun 
tiful  degree,  those  elements  -of  nature  toward  friends  which  make 
man  "sweet  as  summer"  to  his  fellow-man.  As  the  world  saw  him 
during  his  active  career  he  was  a  warrior  with  his  armor  on,  his 
lance  in  rest  and  his  visor  down ;  but  away  from  the  scenes  of  con 
flict  and  in  the  midst  of  those  who  came  close  to  him  he  was  the 
unassuming,  generous,  confiding  friend.  .  At  such  times  he  always 
spoke  with  singular  gentleness  and  charity  of  those  from  whom  he 
differed  and  with  whom  his  debates  had  been  most  heated  and  de 
termined  ;  nor  do  I  think  I  ever  heard  him  speak  with  a  show  of 
personal  resentment  of  such  even  as  had  dealt  most  harshly  and  un 
justly  with  his  name -and  fame. 

Sir,  the  combination  of  rare  and  high  qualities  of  mind  and  heart 
possessed  by  Senator  HILL  not  only  account  for  the  mourning  of 
Georgia  over  his  loss,  but  also  for  the  fact  that  his  death  is  re 
garded  in  every  section  as  a  national  calamity.  His  power  for 
great  public  usefulness  was  recognized  in  every  quarter  of  our  vast, 
expanded  country.  He  had  a  glorious  cause  at  heart,  the  construc 
tion  and  development  of  a  grand,  harmonious  future  for  the  whole 
country,  adjusting  his  own  and  the  kindred  States  and  people  of  the 
South  to  the  existing  conditions  of  the  present  day,  and  insuring 
them  their  full  proportion  of  the  honor  and  the  wealth  of  the  na- 


38  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

tion.  What  nobler  purpose  ever  animated  the  human  breast  ?  But 
in  the  full  meridian  splendor  of  his  mental  vigor  and  his  ripe  ex 
perience  the  unfinished  task  fell  from  his  hands.  That  summons 
to  which  every  ear  shall  hearken  and  all  mortality  obey  reached 
him  at  the  zenith  of  his  powers,  and  with  his  plans  of  future  work 
all  spread  out  before  him. 

When  the  light  of  the  sun  fades  away  at  nightfall  we  behold  the 
harmonious  fulfillment  of  nature's  law ;  but  when  darkness  comes  at 
noonday  we  are  struck  with  awe  at  the  mysteries  of  the  universe. 
When  eternity  beckons  to  one  whose  labors  are  ended  here,  and 
who  walks  wearily  under  the  burden  of  years,  we  see  him  sink  down 
to  his  rest  with  resignation  to  the  decrees  as  they  are  written;  but 
when  death  claims  the  great  and  strong,  in  all  their  pride  of  power 
and  place,  we  break  forth  in  grief,  and  question  the  ways  of  Heaven 
and  earth,  which  are  past  finding  out. 

The  hand  of  the  reaper 

Takes  the  ears  that  are  hoary ; 
But  the  voice  of  the  weeper 

Wails  manhood  in  glory. 

How  capricious  and  various  are  the  ways  of  death  !  On  the  first 
day  of  the  new  year  there  had  gathered  at  the  White  House  a  vast 
assemblage  to  pay  honor  to  the  President  of  the  Republic.  Talent, 
beauty,  official  distinction,  all  were  there.  Heroes  of  the  Army  and 
the  Navy,  in  the  brilliant  decorations  of  their  rank,  made  their  offi 
cial  obeisance  to  their  Commander-in-Chief ;  the  embassadors  of 
distant  courts,  blazing  in  scarlet  and  gold,  paid  friendly  congratu 
lations  to  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  foremost  commonwealth  on 
the  globe ;  thoughtful  legislators  and  ermiiied  judges,  men  of  let 
ters,  and  professors  of  science  stood  in  the  same  presence  ;  female 
loveliness  lent  its  enchantment  to  the  scene ;  soft  music  charmed  all 
the  air;  the  rich  odor  of  flowers  came  with  every  breath,  and  the 
lofty  old  halls  and  promenades  were  vocal  with  exclamations  of 
happy  enjoyment.  Immediately  at  my  side,  in  the  midst  of  this 
radiant  throng,  stood  one  who  was  full  of  years  and  of  honors. 
But  the  spirit  of  the  glass  and  scythe  was  hovering  even  there,  and 
at  the  touch  of  its  icy  hand  I  saw  the  venerable  man  of  four-score 


ADDRESS  OF  MB.    VOORHEES,   OF  INDIANA.  39 

sink  down  like  ail  infant  to  gentle  sleep.  Without  moan  or  sigh 
or  pain  he  passed  in  an  instant  from  the  light,  the  music,  and  the 
perfumes  of  earth  to  the  world  of  eternal  beauty  beyond  the  sun. 

Fortunate  man;  fortunate  in  life,  and  still  more  fortunate  in 
death !  Not  a  moment  in  the  dark  valley  or  the  shadow  between 
the  two  worlds,  he  closed  his  aged  eyes  upon  the  joys  of  time  to  open 
them  upon  the  brighter  visions  of  eternity.  But  how  shall  the 
dreadful  contrast  which  flashes  011  every  mind  be  spoken  ?  To  the 
dead  Senator  whom  we  mourn  to-day  death  came  in  its  most  appall 
ing  form,  wearing  its  most  cruel  and  ghastly  mien.  No  circumstance 
of  torture  or  of  horror  was  omitted  from  the  awful  ordeal  through 
which  he  slowly  passed.  He  sought  the  aid  of  science,  for  life  was 
sweet  to  him ;  but  after  he  turned  his  face  homeward,  to  abide  the 
will  of  God,  as  he  said,  among  his  own  people,  the  pages  of  human 
history  in  all  their  wide  range  present  no  more  striking  instance 
than  he  did  of  uuquailing,  lofty  heroism  and  of  sublime  submission 
to  the  decrees  of  Providence. 

The  stoic  philosopher  of  antiquity  would  have  taken  refuge  in 
self-murder  from  the  frightful  aspect  worn  by  the  King  of  Terrors 
on  which  the  dying  American  statesman  looked  from  hour  to  hour, 
from  day  to  day,  and  from  month  to  mouth  with  unbroken  com 
posure.  A  little  more  than  a  year  ago  the  world  watched  around 
the  death-bed  of  the  slowly  dying  President  of  the  United  States, 
and  wondered  at  his  calmness  and  courage ;  but  to  him  there  was 
administered  daily  hope.  Not  a  whisper  of  earthly  hope  sustained 
Senator  HILL  as  he  looked  long  and  steadily  at  his  inevitable  doom. 
And  yet  no  murmur,  wail,  or  lament  ever  escaped  his  lips ;  he  ut 
tered  no  word  of  grief  or  disappointment  that  the  end  of  his  pil 
grimage  was  so  near ;  no  agony  of  suffering  was  ever  so  terrible  as 
to  extort  a  single  cry  of  pain;  he  never  appeared  so  great,  so  calm 
and  strong,  as  face  to  face  with  the  mighty  monarch  before  whom  all 
must  bow.  And  why  was  this  ?  Able,  self-reliant,  and  intrepid 
as  he  was,  could  he,  unaided  and  alone,  sustain  with  unclouded  se 
renity  of  mind  such  a  conflict  with  approaching  and  painful  disso 
lution  ?  Was  there  no  one  with  him  to  soothe  and  to  comfort  as  he 
passed  through  the  furnace  seven  times  heated  ? 


40  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

Sir,  we  learn  that  Mr.  HILL'S  father  was  a  minister  of  the  Christ 
ian  religion,  and  that  he  educated  his  son  in  the  principles  and  the 
practices  of  his  own  faith.  It  is  a  fact,  also,  that  when  the  son 
grew  to  manhood,  and  at  every  period  of  his  brilliant  and  at  times 
stormy  career,  this  faith  abided  with  him.  The  good  seed  sown 
in  the  morning  may  have  seemed  scorched  by  the  sun,  or  choked 
by  the  thorns  and  cares  of  the  day,  but  it  never  lost  root  in  his 
mind  ;  and  in  his  hour  of  trial  it  brought  forth  fruit  more  than  a 
hundred-fold.  It  enabled  him  to  realize  a  home  of  peace  and  joy 
beyond  the  reach  of  disease  or  death ;  it  enabled  him  to  smile 
amidst  his  sufferings  as  martyrs  have  smiled  in  flames  at  the  stake. 
Though  of  approaching  death  it  might  be  said, 

Black  as  night, 

Fierce  as  ten  furies,  terrible  as  hell, 
He  shook  a  dreadful  dart, 

yet  the  pale  and  wasted  orator  could  for  himself  truthfully  exclaim, 
"  Death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory."  His  heart  could  utter,  if  his 
tongue  could  not,  that  loftiest  psean  of  human  triumph  ever 
chanted  on  the  shores  of  time  : 

O  Death !  where  is  thy  sting  ? 
O  Grave !  where  is  thy  victory  T 

Sir,  it  is  a  deep  and  never-ending  pleasure  to  know  that  in  the 
midst  of  physical  wreck,  decay,  and  pain  there  came  to  our  lost 
comrade  in  full  abundance,  and  in  compensation  for  all  he  endured, 
those  rich  and  precious  consolations  which  this  world  can  neither 
give  nor  take  away. 

He  sleeps  well  in  the  soil  of  his  native  State.  His  memory  will 
remain  fresh  and  green  in  the  hearts  of  his  people.  Distant  and 
rising  generations  will  point  out  his  name  in  the  books  which  re 
cord  these  times  as  they  would  point  out  one  of  the  brightest  stars 
in  the  sky.  And  this  is  all  of  earth  that  remains  for  him.  No 
more  will  this  great  pulsating  world,  with  its  high,  stern  battle- 
cries  of  conflict,  arouse  his  eager  spirit  to  action.  The  world 
moves  on  without  him,  as  the  ocean  rolls  in  unbroken  and  heed 
less  majesty  over  the  wreck  which  has  gone  down  in  her  bosom. 
Great  lives  have  perished  at  every  step  in  the  eternity  of  time,  but 


ADDRESS  OF  MB.  EDMUNDS,  OF  VERMONT.  41 

the  giant  march  of  events  has  not  faltered  nor  the  progress  of  the 
world  been  defeated. 

The  duties  of  the  dead  Senator  are  all  finished.  Even  this 
solemn  occasion,  with  his  name  on  every  lip,  is  nothing  to  him. 
His  silent  dust  is  alike  indifferent  to  praise  or  blame,  and  his  im 
mortal  presence  has  passed  far  beyond  the  call  of  human  voices. 
But  to  us,  the  living,  who  stand  where  he  so  lately  stood,  this 
hour  is  freighted  with  interest  and  admonition.  We  are  walking 
with  unerring  steps  to  the  grave,  and  each  setting  sun  finds  us 
nearer  to  the  realms  of  rest.  The  fleetness  of  time,  our  brief  and 
feeble  grasp  upon  the  affairs  of  earth,  the  certainty  of  death,  and 
the  magnitude  of  eternity  all  crowd  upon  the  mind  at  such  a  mo 
ment  as  this.  They  warn  us  to  be  in  readiness,  for  no  one  knows 
in  the  great  lottery  of  life  and  death  on  whose  cold,  dead,  pathetic 
face  we  may  next  look  in  this  narrow  circle.  They  call  upon  us 
to  think  and  speak  and  live  in  charity  with  each  other,  for  the 
last  hours  that  must  come  to  all  will  be  sweetened  by  recollections 
of  such  forbearance  and  grace  in  our  own  lives  as  we  invoke  for 
ourselves  from  that  merciful  Father  into  whose  presence  we  hasten. 


Address  of  Mr.  EDMUNDS,   of  Vermont. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  Others  more  nearly  connected  with  the  late 
Senator  by  ties  of  location,  political  sympathy,  and  personal  in 
timacy  have  spoken  of  him  as  only  those  so  situated  can  well  do. 

I  will  speak  of  him  chiefly  as  he  appeared  to  me  in  his  public 
career.  He  was,  I  think,  of  the  very  highest  order  of  intellectual 
strength,  both  in  his  perceptive  and  reflective  faculties.  'He  was 
able  to  perceive  with  clearness  the  relations  of  public  questions, 
and  the  remote,  but  not  less  certain,  effects  of  occurring  events, 
when  to  many  others  the  horizon  was  entirely  clouded  and  in 
definite,  or  clothed  with  a  distorted  and  illusory  promise.  A 
Whig  and  American  down  to  the  time  of  the  attempted  se 
cession  of  the  Southern  States  in  1861,  he  foresaw  something 
of  the  future  and  opposed  with  earnestness  and  power  in  the 


42  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

conventions  of  his  native  State  the  movement  for  secession.  But 
when  it  was  resolved  upon  and  undertaken,  he  gave  himself  up 
to  what  he  considered  his  duty  to  his  State,  and  was  thenceforth 
among  the  foremost  in  sustaining  the  Southern  cause. 

The  notion  of  fidelity  to  one's  own  State,  whether  her  course  be 
thought  wise  and  right  or  not,  is  almost  a  natural  instinct ;  and 
whether  it  be  defensible  on  broad  grounds  or  not,  who  does  not 
sympathize  with  it?  Even  in  this  body,  whose  members  are 
Senators  of  the  United  States,  and  are  not,  in  a  constitutional 
sense,  any  more  representatives  of  the  particular  States  that  elected 
them  than  of  all  the  other  States  and  the  people,  it  is  extremely 
difficult  to  free  ourselves  from  the  feeling  that  we  are  the  repre 
sentatives  of  particular  States  merely,  and  that  we  are  bound  to 
defend  and  promote  the  interests  of  their  inhabitants  without  re 
sponsibility  for  the  effect  of  what  we  do  upon  the  people  of  other 
States.  Is  it  not  clear  that  the  fundamental  unity  of  all  the 
States,  as  well  as  the  security  of  the  rights  of  each,  will  be  much 
more  secure,  and  the  National  Government  much  better  admin 
istered,  if  we  remember  that  our  obligations  and  our  solicitudes 
should  be  bounded  by  no  arrangements  of  political  geography  ? 
So  thinking,  I  look  with  large  interest  and  sympathy  upon  the 
scenes  and  events  in  which  the  late  Senator  from  Georgia  bore  so 
conspicuous  a  part,  and  upon  the  affection  and  confidence  that  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  of  that  State  felt  toward  him.  And,  dif 
fering  widely  from  him  in  respect  of  very  many  of  his  acts  and 
opinions,  I  felt  deeply  for  him,  for  his  family,  and  for  his  people 
in  the  calamity  that  came  upon  him.  And  how  much  more  ten 
der  our  sympathy  and  admiration  gre\v  when  we  saw  him  bearing 
the  greatest  of  human  suffering  with  the  calmness  of  manly  forti 
tude  and  the  supreme  happiness  of  Christian  faith,  and  when  we 
saw  that  all  the  evils  of  this  weary  life  were  powerless  to  affect 
his  soul,  that  rose  "  over  pain  to  victory." 

Such  events  as  we  now  commemorate,  interesting  and  solemn  as 
they  are  and  must  be  to  each  one  of  us,  are  the  most  common  and 
the  most  certain  of  all.  The  life  of  man,  did  it  end  with  this  earthly 
career,  would  be  the  most  miserable  of  phantasms;  but  to  those  who 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  JONES,  OF  FLORIDA.  43 

see  with  the  eye  of  faith  beyond  the  narrow  border  of  our  mortal 
life  "the  yoke  is  easy  arid  the  burden  light."  On  this  great  stage 
of  government  the  actors  appear  and  act  their  parts  and  disappear 
to  come  again  no  more,  but  the  grand  drama  goes  on  without  inter 
ruption.  When  the  greatest  and  apparently  th^  most  important 
administrators  of  government  suddenly  depart  there  always  comes 
forward  from  the  body  of  an  intelligent  people  some  one  to  fill  the 
vacant  place  and  who  is  equal  to  the  emergency  of  the  time.  While, 
then,  we  are  touched  with  the  suddenness  of  these  separations,  let 
us  take  comfort  in  the  knowledge  that  oiir  country's  institutions 
flourish  in  larger  and  larger  security,  and  that  all  our  people  feel 
more  and  more  the  depth  and  strength  of  mutual  interest,  sympathy, 
and  good  will. 

Address  of  Mr.  JONES,  of  Florida. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  It  is  not  my  intention  to  weary  the  Senate  at 
this  hour  by  rehearsing  the  story  of  Mr.  HILL'S  fame.  Every 
thing  interesting  in  his  public  life  has  been  graphically  set  forth  by 
his  able  colleague  and  the  Senators  who  followed  him,  so  that  there 
is  nothing  left  for  me  to  do  except  to  put  on  record  my  humble  testi 
mony  of  the  value  of  a  man  like  Mr.  HILL  to  this  country,  and  my 
sense  of  the  loss  which  this  Senate  and  the  nation  have  sustained  in 
our  deceased  brother's  sad  and  untimely  death.  In  surveying  the 
great  field  of  life  and  noting  the  progress  which  has  been  made  in 
every  science  and  almost  every  department  of  knowledge,  it  would 
seem  from  the  little  advance  or  change  that  has  taken  place  in  the 
affairs  of  government  that  we  have  reached  a  point  of  perfection  in 
the  art  of  ruling  states  and  peoples ;  that  it  is  beyond  the  power  of 
human  genius  to  do  more  than  maintain  the  spirit  and  integrity  of 
our  existing  establishments. 

The  best  labors  of  the  great  minds  of  this  country  have  been  de 
voted  to  the  work  of  settling  in  the  public  mind  the  great  principles 
of  our  admirable  systems  of  government,  so  that  at  all  times  the 
great  body  of  the  people  could  comprehend  the  line  of  separation 
which  divides  authority  from  popular  rights,  and  thus  secure  a  loyal 
support  of  government  on  the  one  hand  and  a  steady  and  intelligent 


44  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

devotion  to  liberty  on  the  other.  In  those  unhallowed  despotisms 
of  the  earth  where  man  is  crushed  and  oppressed  by  excessive  public 
power,  it  is  the  mystery  which  surrounds  the  segis  and  exercise  of 
governmental  authority  that  sustains  the  unfortunate  relations  of 
tyrant  and  slave.  There  nothing  is  defined,  limited,  or  compre 
hensible,  but  all  is  dark,  complicated,  and  forbidding.  The  popular 
mind,  long  enslaved  by  superstitious  devotion  to  slavish  names  and 
maxims,  never  sees  anything  of  the  light  of  truth,  and  power  and 
authority  united  with  ignorance  and  submission  keep  millions  in 
bondage  and  chains. 

You  may  ask,  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  the  character  or 
merits  of  the  deceased  ?  I  answer  that  in  making  up  my  estimate 
of  the  loss  of  our  distinguished  brother  I  cannot  overlook  the 
quality  which,  above  all  others,  made  him  both  eminent  and  useful. 
If,  as  I  said  awhile  ago,  we  have  made  no  progress  in  government 
of  late,  and  have  added  nothing  to  the  discovery  of  the  fathers  for 
the  security  or  happiness  of  the  people,  it  is  of  the  highest  impor 
tance  that  the  work  which  has  been  accomplished  shall  be  maintained. 
The  gifted  man  whom  we  mourn  to-day  was  especially  fitted  for  the 
great  duty  of  keeping  before  the  people  the  beacon-light  of  political 
truth  to  teach  them  their  obligations  to  themselves  and  their  Gov 
ernment;  to  impress  upon  their  minds  true  conceptions  of  political 
liberty,  allegiance,  and  loyalty  to  the  demands  of  just  authority,  and 
the  preservation  of  every  power  and  authority  which  belong  to  the 
people  and  the  States.  His  capacity  for  this  great  duty  made  him 
a  leader  of  public  opinion.  In  little  matters  he  was  not  as  great  as 
little  men.  But  where  the  magnitude  of  the  question  rose  to  the 
level  of  his  great  ability  his  power  of.  argument  was  felt  here  and 
in  the  country. 

The  ordinary  routine  worker  had  then  to  stand  aside,  and  every 
one  admired  the  workings  of  his  original,  incisive  mind  as  it  put 
forth  its  powerful  arguments  in  terse  and  pointed  speech.  This, 
after  all,  is  the  highest  position  a  public  man  can  occupy  in  a 
country  like  this.  Men  of  detail  and  method  and  labor  can  be 
found  anywhere  and  at  all  times,  but  even  at  a  time  when  every 
thing  is  in  a  state  of  improvement  these  grand  qualities  of  mind 
which  immortalized  Fox,  Pitt,  Canning,  Grattan,  Webster,  Clay, 


ADDRESS  OF  MB.  JONES,  OF  FLORIDA.  45 

and  Calhoun  are  as  rare  and  far  more  important  than  they  ever 
were.  It  was  Mr.  HILL'S  great  ability  as  an  argumentative  speaker 
and  writer  which  gave  him  his  fame. 

He  was  often  called  a  great  orator,  but  he  was  more  than  an  orator 
in  the  popular  sense.  He  always  addressed  himself  to  the  minds 
of  his  hearers.  I  never  knew  a  speaker  of  the  same  reputation 
who  drew  less  upon  his  imagination  than  Senator  HILL.  In  his 
over-anxiety  to  fasten  conviction  on  the  mind  he  would  often  labor 
for  the  accuracy  and  precision  of  the  mathematician.  While  his 
vocabulary  was  always  strong  and  simple,  in  my  judgment  it  often 
fell  short  of  the  vigor  and  the  depth  of  his  thoughts.  Like  all  truly 
great  men,  he  attached  more  consequence  to  his  ideas  than  to  his 
language.  He  was  in  no  sense  a  wordy  but  always  a  thoughtful 
speaker.  His  views  of  the  Constitution  were  broad  and  liberal. 
In  his  expositions  of  our  great  organic  law  he  did  not  run  into  the 
extreme  maxims  of  unlimited  power  on  the  one  hand  nor  seek  to 
abridge  by  too  narrow  bounds  the  authority  of  the  Union  on  the 
other.  While  he  always  admitted  that  the  Constitution  of  the 
Union  was  created  by  the  people  of  the  United  States,  he  ever  con 
tended  that  this  was  accomplished  through  separate  State  agencies — 
the  people  of  each  State  acting  for  themselves  in  the  matter  of  rati 
fication,  independent  of  the  people  of  every  other  State. 

But  this  view  did  not  affect  in  the  least  his  opinion  of  the  su 
premacy  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  He  always  contended  that 
the  powers  granted  by  the  people  of  the  several  States,  acting  as 
organized  political  factions,  to  the  General  Government  were  as  ir 
revocable  and  as  binding  upon  the  people  and  the  States  as  though 
they  emanated  from  the  people  of  the  Union  without  regard  to 
State  organizations.  The  great  argument  which  he  drew  from  the 
mode  of  ratification  was  that  the  States  and  the  Government  of  the 
Union  were  parts  of  one  system ;  that  there  could  be  no  question  of  di 
vided  allegiance  between  them ;  that  the  Union  could  not  exist  with 
out  the  States,  although  the  States  did  exist  before  the  Union.  He 
always  advocated  a  free  and  liberal  exercise  of  the  powers  granted 
this  Government,  but  his  nature  was  hostile  to  everything  that  had 
the  appearance  of  usurpation.  He  was  one  of  the  few  men  in 
public  life  who  combined  high  abilities  as  a  political  leader  with 


46  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

pre-eminent  legal  talents.  Lord  Chatham  at  one  time  deprecated 
the  presence  of  the  mere  lawyer  in  Parliament,  and  he  said  that 
you  might  shake  the  constitution  of  the  land  to  its  center  and  the 
lawyer  would  sit  tranquil  in  his  cabinet,  but  just  touch  a  cobweb  in 
the  corner  of  Westminster  Hall  and  the  exasperated  spider  would 
crawl  out  in  its  defense. 

But  this  was  not  the  case  with  Senator  HILL.  He  did  not  sacri 
fice  the  Constitution  to  the  profession.  He  brought  to  the  one  all 
the  support  of  an  enlightened  statesman  and  patriot  full  of  devotion 
for  the  whole  country  and  its  institutions,  and  the  other  he  adorned 
with  legal  learning  and  professional  abilities  that  will  long  be  re 
membered  by  the  bar.  Like  all  men  of  strong  convictions  and 
great  prominence,  lie  was?  supported  by  devoted  friends,  and  was 
not  without  some  enemies.  Although  he  was  fondly  attached  to  his 
high  position  where  his  talents  had  full  play,  and  tenderly  bound 
by  the  ties  of  affection  to  his  devoted  family,  the  world  does  not 
furnish  an  example  more  sublime  than  that  which  he  has  left  us  in 
all  the  qualities  of  moral  and  physical  courage,  true  Christian  and 
manly  resignation,  patient  and  uncomplaining  submission  to  the 
will  of  God  during  the  long,  tedious  months  that  he  awaited  in 
agony  and  suffering  the  period  of  his  mortal  dissolution.  All  the 
glory  of  the  Senate  and  the  fame  of  the  hustings  fade  into  insignifi 
cance  before  the  grand  spectacle  presented  by  this  Christian  man 
when  the  time  arrived  which  tested  the  weakness  of  human  nature. 
Whether  bleeding  under  the  operations  of  the  surgeon's  knife  or 
silently  feeling  the  gradual  but  sure  inroads  of  the  monster  that 
was  preying  upon  him,  he  never  murmured  or  complained,  but 
accepted  the  terrible  situation  as  evidence  only  of  Divine  pleasure 
and  with  the  firm  conviction  that  his  sufferings  would  be  rewarded 
by  a  happier  life  beyond  the  grave. 

Who  can  deny  the  value  and  efficiency  of  strong  Christian  faith 
with  such  an  example  of  its  power  and  influence  before  him  ? 
With  all  the  glory  and  renown  of  the  world  fading  away  before 
the  shadow  of  eternity,  this  strong  man,  accustomed  to  all  the  proc 
esses  of  reason,  under  the  inspiration  of  Christian  hope  was  able 
to  leave  an  example  of  true  heroism  more  valuable  and  sublime 
than  any  left  by  the  unbelieving  philosophers  of  antiquity. 


ADDRESS  OF  MM.  BARROW,  OF  GEORGIA.  47 


Address  of  Mr.  BARROW,  of  Georgia. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  It  is  perhaps  true  that  I  stand  alone  here  upon 
the  point  from  which  I  consider  the  character  of  the  illustrious 
man  in  memory  of  whom  the  Senate  meets  to-day.  All  others 
who  surround  me  at  this  moment  have  recorded  impressions  re 
ceived  and  stamped  upon  their  own  mature  and  well-settled  indi 
vidualities.  They  have  studied  him  and  measured  him  from  the 
first  in  the  light  which  a  long  experience  of  their  own  in  public; 
affairs  cast  upon  him,  and  the  figure  they  contemplate  is  shaded 
perhaps  by  some  clouds  which  have  never  darkened  the  picture 
upon  which  I  am  looking. 

In  the  buoyant,  hero-worshiping,  enthusiastic  heyday  of  my  early 
college  days  I  first  saw  him  and  heard  him.  Under  the  ancient 
and  historic  locusts  that  stand  like  sentinels  around  the  court-house 
at  Lexington,  in  the  old  county  of  Oglethorpe,  in  Georgia,  in  the 
last  days  of  the  summer  of  1857,  there  first  burst  upon  my  youth 
ful  eye  the  exhibition  of  his  wonderful  oratory.  Engaged  in  a 
heated  political  campaign  as  a  candidate  for  governor  of  Georgia,  his 
opponent  being  my  present  colleague  in  the  Senate,  conscious  that 
there  was  before  him  "  a  foeman  worthy  of  his  steel,"  and  that  in 
that  old  Whig  county,  thousands  of  whose  best  people  were  con 
gregated  to  hear  the  debate,  he  had  an  army  of  friends  whom  he 
must  uphold,  encourage,  and  keep  together,  he  put  forth  all  his 
powers.  As  he  towered  and  soared  in  his  grand  swelling  tributes 
to  the  historic  renown  of  the  old  Whig  party,  and,  roused  to  his 
highest  pitch,  appealed  to  the  immense  audience  before  him  in  the 
name  of  its  past,  its  heroes,  and  its  mission,  I  felt,  young  Democrat 
that  I  was,  that  I  was  a  witness  to  an  almost  apostolic  revelation 
of  eloquence ;  and  then  when  he  turned  upon  his  opponent  and 
began  to  hurl  his  terrible  invectives,  scathing,  pitiless,  unsparing, 
his  every  word  glittering  like  steel,  his  every  accent  resonant  and 
ringing  with  the  very  inspiration  of  passionate  indignation,  his 


48  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

blazing  figure  was  in  my  eyes  the  impersonation  of  every  element 
of  vengeance  and  destruction,  the  very  Apollyon  of  politics.  It 
is  doubtful  if  any  speech  of  his  life  contained  as  much  of  that 
power  which  operates  particularly  upon  the  passions  of  men  as  this 
unwritten,  unpreserved  phenomenal  effort. 

Almost  undimmed  by  time,  with  the  same  bright  hues  and  radi 
ant  lights  that  greeted  and  delighted  my  boyish  senses,  this  vision 
of  eloquence  remains.  Long-after  association,  as  much  intimacy  as 
disparity  in  age  would  allow,  frequent  opportunity  to  hear  him 
again  in  the  courts,  before  the  people,  and  elsewhere,  have  all 
passed  over  those  first  impressions  leaving  them  almost  unchanged. 

Although  born  upon  the  soil  of  Georgia,  reared  in  the  midst  of 
of  her  home  influences,  surrounded  all  the  time  during  which  his 
character  was  being  formed  by  all  the  agencies  and  forces  peculiar 
to  her  people,  taught  in  her  schools,  graduated  from  her  university, 
Mr.  HILL  was  still  in  some  respects  not  a  typical  Georgian.  There 
was  something  in  his  nature,  an  impulse,  an  insubordination,  that 
made  him  sometimes,  when  he  thought  he  scented  injustice  or  op 
pression,  break  over  all  bounds  of  seeming  prudence  and  caution 
and  rush  into  the  first  arena  that  presented  itself  to  cast  down  his 
glove.  His  nature  was  not  discreet.  At  such  times  the  circum 
spect  and  deliberate  moderation  and  wisdom  that  are  characteristic 
of  the  Georgians  fretted  and  chafed  him.  He  would  then  rebel 
against  the  slow,  fettering  caution  of  his  people  and  would  lash  out 
in  his  fiery  way  against  what  to  him  seemed  apathy  and  pusillan 
imity. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  they  sometimes  misjudged  him  when 
in  the  midst  of  some  rebellious  outbreak  against  what  to  his  impet 
uous  nature  seemed  the  snail-like  march  of  his  people  to  the  threat 
ened  point,  he  rushed  on  in  advance.  Men  of  this  mold  in  all  ages 
have  been  leaders,  and  the  masses  of  mankind  have  everywhere 
been  saved,  when  saved  at  all,  by  those  whom  they  did  not  com 
prehend  and  whom  they  at  some  time  would  greet  with  the  ever- 
recurring  verdict  of  the  rabble,  "Let  him  be  crucified."  This  re 
pressive  power  of  the  million  upon  their  few  great  men  who,  rari 
nantes  in  gurgite  vasto,  outlive  the  wave  and  see  the  dangers  that 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  B  Alt  ROW,  OF  GEORGIA.  49 

gather  in  the  future  which  are  invisible  to  the  submerged  eyes  of  the 
rest  of  us,  has  sometimes  cost  them  their  liberties.  Its  influence, 
deadening,  paralyzing,  and  disheartening,  is  more  powerful  than 
ever  in  this  age.  It  was  exerted  upon  him  of  whom  I  speak  more 
than  once,  but  he  defied  it.  Alone,  seeking  no  ally,  looking  with 
disdain  upon  the  clamorous  multitude,  taking  no  counsel,  trusting 
to  his  impulse  and  obeying  it,  he  would  burst  out  upon  his  meteoric 
course  athwart  the  political  heavens.  Blazing  and  flashing  writh 
the  brilliant  and  almost  blinding  scintillations  of  his  vivid  intelli 
gence,  terrifying  his  friends  as  to  the  consequences,  overwhelming 
his  thunder-stricken  enemies,  coming  into  collision  with  the  lifelong 
prejudices  and  cherished  opinions  of  his  own  people,  he  would  go 
sweeping  on  in  his  grand  career.  And  yet  the  Georgians  always 
forgave  him  in  the  end  and  admired  and  honored  him. 

Whatever  of  power  and  attractiveness  Mr.  HILL  may  have  pos 
sessed  as  a  political  orator  and  debater,  it  was  before  a  jury  that  his 
peculiar  talents  in  one  direction  at  least  found  their  fullest  play.  If 
in  the  trial  of  a  case  in  which  his  feelings  became  enlisted  a  corrupt 
and  lying  witness  crossed  his  path,  or  the  opposite  party  persisted 
in  an  attempt  to  palm  off  fraud  and  injustice  upon  the  court  to  the 
injury  of  his  client,  then  it  was  that  the  terrible  lashes  of  his  fiercest 
invective  were  laid  upon  their  backs.  Xo  "dint  of  pity,"  no  limit 
to  wrath,  no  check  or  curb  ever  came  near  him  then,  and  men  are 
living  now  who  shiver  at  the  mention  of  his  name,  as  the  Saracen 
did  at  Richard's,  in  mindfuluess  of  some  such  merciless  castigation. 
His  greatest  power  was  of  this  sort.  There  was  but  little  pathos 
in  him.  His  verdicts,  and  he  won  many,  were  those  of  the  "  cloud 
compelling  Jove"  rather  than  the  "sweet  influences  of  Pleiades." 

Many  great  orators  have  had  epochs  in  their  lives  when  their 
style  as  such  suffered  a  transformation.  This  was  notably  true  of 
Choate,  of  Lincoln,  and  of  Gambetta.  It  became  less  impassioned 
and  more  philosophical ;  but  with  Mr.  HILL  there  was  a  marked 
and  powerful  exercise  in  his  latest  efforts  of  precisely  the  same  great 
characteristics  that  distinguished  his  earliest ;  and  even  the  tradi 
tions  of  his  college  days,  that  still  lovingly  cling  around  the  old 
ivied  walls  of  his  alma  mater  at  Athens,  dim  and  shadowy  though 
4  H 


50  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

they  IKI,  handed  down  from  class  t(»  class,  still  outline  the  .same 
striking  individuality  that  afterward  riveted  the  attention  of  a  con 
tinent. 

Hut  with  all  his  triumphs — 

Nothing  in  his  life 

Became  him  like  the  leaving  it;  he  died 
As  cue  that  had  heeu  studied  in  his  death, 
To  throw  away  the  dearest  thing  lie  ow'd, 
As  'twere  a  careless  trine. 

Stricken,  fatally  stricken  in  that  very  member  which  was  his 
strength,  his  glory,  and  his  pride,  turning  his  steps  away  from  the 
Senate  after  those  sad  and  fruitless  efforts  to  grasp  a  new  life  had 
all  proved  unavailing,  calm,  composed,  resolute,  resigned,  he  sought 
his  own  home.  Happening  in  Atlanta  on  the  18th  of  July,  just 
one  month  before  his  death,  I  called  to  see  him.  I  found  him,  him 
who  was  in  some  respects  the  greatest  talker  I  had  ever  known, 
utterly  powerless  of  speech.  On  his  knee  he  held  a  paper  upon 
which  he  wrote  slowly  with  a  pencil  these  words : 

Wish  I  could  talk.  My  present  doctors  have  given  me  to  understand  that 
I  cannot  recover,  and  my  time  is  uncertain — from  a  few  months  to  several 
years.  Have  told  me  to  employ  any  other  doctors  and  remedies  I  see  proper. 

He  gave  it  to  me  to  read  and  I  brought  it  away  with  me.  It  is 
here,  and  those  Avho  know  his  handwriting  Avill  recognize  the 
familiar  characters.  His  eyes  as  he  gave  it  had  a  look  of  inex 
pressible  sadness,  but  not  of  regret  or  repining.  He  had  sought 
the  refuge  of  home  to  die.  He  knew  full  well,  as  he  so  pathetic 
ally  wrote,  that  his  "time  was  uncertain,"  but  he  was  in  the  place 
he  had  chosen  to  take  his  last  look  of  the  earth.  Surrounded  by 
friends,  in  his  own  home,  under  his  own  native  skies,  amid  the 
scenes  of  his  childhood,  his  youth,  and  his  manhood,  with  the  silver 
sheen  of  the  maples  to  greet  his  weary  eyes  in  the  sunlight,  and  the 
soft  lingual  accents  of  his  native  South  from  all  the  myriad  voices 
of  the  street,  and  the  subtle  sweetness  of  the  honeysuckle,  the  jas 
mine,  and  the  roses  stealing  in  the  long  summer  afternoons  through 
his  open  windows,  there  where  the  nights  always  bring  silence  and 


ADDRESS  OF  ME.  BARROW,   OF  GEORGIA.  51 

rest  and  every  morning  its  promise,  he  sat  patiently  awaiting  his 

summons.     When  it  came  he  received  it- 
Like  oue  who  wraps  the  drapery  of  his  couch  about  him 
And  lies  down  to  pleasant  dreams. 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore.  The  question  is  on  the  adoption  of 
the  resolutions  presented  by  the  Senator  from  Georgia  [Mr.  Brown]. 

The  resolutions  were  agreed  to  unanimously ;  and  (at  one  o'clock 
and  thirty  minutes  p.  m.)  the  Senate  adjourned. 


PROCEEDINGS  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES 


IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

January  25,  1883. 

MESSAGE    FROM  THE  SENATE. 

A  message  from  the  Senate,  by  Mr.  Sympson,  one  of  its  clerks, 
communicated  to  the  House  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Senate  on 
the  announcement  of  the  death  of  Hon.  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL,  late 
a  Senator  of  the  United  States  from  the  State  of  Georgia. 

The  SPEAKER.  The  Chair  lays  before  the  House  the  resolutions 
that  have  just  been  received  from  the  Senate. 

The  Clerk  read  a'*  follows: 

IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

January  25.  1883. 

Rexolved,  That  earnestly  desiring  to  show  every  possible  mark  of  respect  to 
the  memory  of  Hon.  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL,  late  a  Senator  of  the  United  States 
from  the  State  of  Georgia,  and  to  manifest  the  high  esteem  in  which  his  emi 
nent  public  services  and  distinguished  patriotism  are  held,  the  business  of 
the  Senate  be  now  suspended  that  the  friends  and  late  associates  of  Senator 
HILL  may  pay  fitting  tribute  to  his  high  character,  his  public  services,  and 
private  virtues. 

Resolved,  That  in  the  death  of  Senator  HILL  the  country  has  sustained  a  loss 
which  has  been  felt  and  deplored  to  the  utmost  limits  of  the  Union. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  communicate  these  resolutions  to 
the  House  of  Representatives. 

Resolved,  That,  as  an  additional  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  the  de 
ceased,  the  Senate  do  now  adjourn. 

Mr.  HAMMOND,  of  Georgia.  I  submit  the  resolutions  which  I 
send  to  the  desk. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows  : 

Resolved,  That  the  House  of  Representatives  has  received  with  deep  sorrow 
the  official  announcement  of  the  death  of  BENJAMIN  HARVEY  HILL,  late 
United  States  Senator  from  the  State  of  Georgia. 

Resolved,  That  the  House  suspend  its  business,  that  fitting  mention  may  be 
made  of  his  private  virtues  and  his  public  worth. 

Resolved,  That  at  the  conclusion  of  such  tributes  to  his  memory  the  House 
shall  stand  adjourned. 


f)4  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 


Address  of  Mr.  HAMMOND,  of  Georgia. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  So  many  have  spoken  and  written  of  the  dead 
Senator,  so  aptly  have  the  prominent  incidents  of  his  life  and 
phases  of  his  character  been  noticed  that  naught  but  repetition  can 
follow.  But,  representing  the  district  in  which  he  lived,  having 
practiced  law  at  the  same  bar  with  him  for  twenty  years,  and  been 
long  his  neighbor  and  friend,  I  cannot  allow  this  occasion  to  pass 
without  adding  my  tribute  to  the  many  already  so  worthily  be 
stowed. 

Born  without  wealth,  he  owed  to  a  relative  the  opportunity  for 
completing  his  education  in  the  University  of  Georgia.  There,  in 
1844,  he  bore  off  the  first  honor  in  a  class  noted  for  men  who  be 
came  prominent  in  the  affairs  of  our  State. 

In  1845  he  began  the  practice  of  law  at  La  Grange,  Troup 
County,  Georgia.  In  February,  1848,  he  was  admitted  to  the  su 
preme  court  of  the  State.  Residing  in  the  interior,  among  an  agri 
cultural  people,  he  had  but  little  use  for  such  branches  of  the  law 
as  commercial  centers  and  seaports  demand.  He  used  no  special 
pleading  except  in  the  United  States  courts,  in  which,  prior  to  the 
war,  the  jurisdiction  was  limited  and  the  business  meager.  He 
owned  few  books,  and  no  large  law  library  was  within  his  reach. 

He  did  not  become  learned  in  the  law  by  comparing  system  with 
system,  the  polity  of  our  people  with  those  of  other  nations, 
measuring  their  weights  and  computing  their  values  as  affected  by 
times,  places  and  circumstances.  But  he  had  a  strong  and  compre 
hensive  mind,  and  had  cultivated  his  intellectual  forces  until  In- 
had  acquired  that  high  art  so  well  described  by  Cicero  :  "  Quse  docet 
rem  universam  tribuere  in  partes,  latentem  explicare  definiendo, 
obscuram  explanare  interpretando ;  ambigua  primum  videre,  deinde 
distinguerc;  postremo  habuere  regulam  quoveraet  falsa  judicaren- 
ter  et  quse,  quibus  positis,  essent,  quseque  non  essent,  consequential' 

He  cited  but  few  authorities  and  seldom  read  from  books.  But 
he  had  mastered  our  system  of  blended  law  and  equity,  and  this 
power  of  analysis  and  combination  made  him  strong  before  the 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HAMMOND,  OF  GEORff 

bench,  searching  out  and  applying  principles  to  facts.  His" 
was  clear,  precise,  forcible,  and  ornate.  His  splendid  physique,  his 
graceful  and  manly  delivery,  his  brilliant  oratory,  now  mild  and 
persuasive,  now  furious  as  the  storm,  made  him  an  advocate  unsur 
passed  in  our  country. 

Such  ability  and  accomplishments  commanded  employment  at 
the  highest  compensation,  and  furnished  ample  means  to  supply  the 
wants  and  gratify  the  tastes  of  himself  and  family.  A  hundred 
acres  comprised  his  suburban  home  and  farm.  In  front  were  per 
haps  twenty  acres  square  on  which  grew  nothing  but  massive  oaks. 
Midway  between  them  a  gravel  carriage-way  and  granite  walk  led 
to  the  top  of  a  hill.  There  he  built  his  house;  square,  spacious, 
and  on  three  sides  shaded  by  a  colonnade  of  tall  and  heavy  Corin 
thian  columns.  While  one  was  struck  with  its  adaptation  to  its 
surroundings,  the  fruits  and  fish-ponds  in  rear,  the  flowers  in  front, 
prepared  him  for  the  bountiful  but  unostentatious  hospitality  and 
plain  but  tasteful  adornment  within  the  lawyer's  home. 

Here,  in  the  midst  of  his  family,  of  which  he  was  at  once  the  stay 
and  idol,  we  leave  him  to  glance  at  his  career  in  the  broader  field 
of  politics.  Thus  it  has  been  epitomized  by  himself  in  the  Con 
gressional  Directory :  He  was  State  representative  in  Georgia  in 
1851  and  State  senator  in  1859-1860.  He  ran  as  the  candidate  of 
the  American  party  against  Hirarn  Warner  in  1855,  and  for  gov 
ernor  of  Georgia  in  1857  against  Governor  (now  Senator)  Brown. 
He  was  presidential  elector  on  the  Fillmore  and  Donelson  ticket  in 
1856,  and  on  the  Bell  and  Everett  ticket  in  1860.  He  was  a  dele 
gate  to  the  State  convention  of  Georgia  in  1861,  and  advocated  the 
Union  until  secession  had  been  irrevocably  resolved  upon  ;  became 
a  delegate  to  the  provisional  congress  of  the  Confederate  States  and 
a  senator  in  its  regular  congress.  He  was  elected  to  the  Forty- 
fourth  Congress  to  fill  the  vacancy  caused  by  the  death  of  Garnet t 
McMillan,  and  was  elected  to  the  Forty-fifth  Congress,  but  resigned 
upon  his  election  to  the  United  States  Senate.  There  he  remained 
from  the  5th  of  March,  1877,  till  his  death. 

The  time  thus  covered  was  long.  It  was  burdened  by  the  grand 
events  which  led  up  to  the  war,  by  that  terrible  struggle  for  su- 


56  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

premacy  and  the  strife  and  convulsions  of  the  people  slowly  wan 
dering  bark  through  untried  paths  to  peace. 

One  part  of  it  we  may  dwell  upon,  because  lie  always  mentioned 
it  with  such  self-satisfaction — that  was  his  love  for  the  Union  of 
the  States.  He  favored  the  Clay  compromise  measures  of  1850; 
he  supported  Howel!  Cobb  for  governor  as  the  candidate  of  the 
Constitutional  Union  party  upon  a  platform  declaring  those  com 
promises  "  fair,  just,  and  equitable/'  and  aided  in  piling  up  for  him 
a  then  unprecedented  majority  in  a  gubernatorial  race  in  our  State. 

This  platform  of  1855  spoke  of  "the  maintenance  of  the  Union 
of  these  United  States  as  the  paramount  political  good."  By  that 
of  1856  "the  perpetuation  of  the  Federal  Union"  was  regarded 
"  as  the  palladium  of  our  civil  and  religious  liberties  and  the  only 
sure  bulwark  of  American  independence."  That  of  1860 — 

Resolved,  That  it  is  both  the  part  of  patriotism  and  of  duty  to  recognize  no 
political  principles  other  than  the  Constitution  of  the  country,  the  Union  of 
the  States,  and  the  enforcement  of  the  laws. 

He  opposed  the  calling  of  the  Georgia  State  convention  of  1860. 
He  was  elected  thereto  to  oppose  secession.  In  that  body,  com 
posed  of  the  flower  of  our  State,  men  superior  to  him  in  age  and 
political  experience,  he  led  the  fight  for  Governor  Johnson's  reso 
lutions  for  a  convention  of  States,  to  defeat  those  of  Judge  Xesbit 
for  immediate  disunion.  Though  his  motion  failed,  he  voted 
against  the  declaratory  resolution  for  secession  with  a  minority  of 
less  than  a  third  of  the  convention.  South  Carolina  had  seceded; 
Mississippi,  Florida,  and  Alabama  had  gone.  Georgia  then  seemed 
to  him  to  have  no  choice  between  joining  her  fortunes  with  theirs 
and  confusion  and  chaos  within  her  borders.  He  therefore  then 
sought  to  make  the  convention  unanimous  for  secession.  And 
when  the  war  was  over,  at  an  expense  of  nearly  $2,000,  he  placed 
in  front  of  that  broad  walk  to  his  house  immense  iron  gates,  on 
each  of  which  were  shown  our  flag  and  eagle,  that  in  going  in  and 
out  he  and  his  children  might  be  daily  reminded  of  the  imperish 
able  ensigns  of  their  country. 

But  while  he  had  struggled  for  the  Union,  none  doubted  his  de 
votion  to  the  Southern  cause.  While  Georgia's  colonial  flag  floated 


ADDRESS  OF  ME.  HAMMOND,  OF  GEORGIA.  57 

over  the  capitol  at  Milledgeville  lie  was  chosen  by  the  convention 
of  1860  as  a  delegate  to  the  provisional  congress,  charged  by  a  reso 
lution  of  our  State  to  form  a  government  "  modeled  as  nearly  as 
practicable  011  the  basis  and  principles  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  of  America." 

The  first  session  of  our  general  assembly  elected  him  senator  in 
the  congress  of  the  Confederate  States,  over  Law  and  Governor 
Johnson,  who  had  opposed  secession,  and  Iverson,  Jackson,  and 
Toornbs,  who  had  urged  disunion.  And  in  that  senate  the  confi 
dence  of  his  State  was  supplemented  by  that  of  President  Davis  and 
all  the  most  earnest  friends  of  the  new  government. 

That  government  failed,  but  his  career  was  not  ended.  The 
war  restored  the  Union.  But  how  changed  was  the  situation  ! 
The  South  did  not  concede  that  its  quarrel  had  been  unjust  or  its 
action  wrong.  There,  as  here,  the  soldiers  gloried  in  their  records. 
There,  as  here,  he  who  bore  a  wound  received  in  battle  was  re 
garded  as  holding  a  patent  to  the  love  and  admiration  of  his  fel 
lows. 

The  Union  was  restored  in  law,  but  without  the  ante-bellum 
surroundings.  The  Constitution  was  changed  in  essentials  which 
the  North  thought  would  strengthen  our  system,  but  which  the 
South  thought  subversive  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  our 
Government. 

A  new  element  was  incorporated  into  the  body-politic.  The 
North  thought  that  necessary  to  secure  what  it  called  "  the  fruits 
of  the  war ; "  the  South  thought  that  thereby  her  civilization  was 
endangered  and  the  safeguards  of  constitutional  liberty  strained 
to  their  uttermost.  "  Reconstruction "  came  in  all  its  various 
phases — disfranchisement  of  former  citizens  and  enfranchisement 
of  former  slaves,  martial  law,  and  bayonet  rule. 

The  South  was  repeating  the  mournful  Jeremiad  : 

We  are  orphans  and  fatherless,  our  mothers  are  as  widows.      * 

Our  necks  are  under  persecution  ;  we  labor  and  have  no  rest. 

Servants  have  ruled  over  us;  there  is  none  to  deliver  us  out  of  their  hand. 

Mr.  HILL  heard  and  determined  to  strike  for  deliverance.  Oc 
cupying  no  official  position,  he  could  appeal  only  as  a  private  citizen. 
lie  had  been  well  trained  for  such  work.  In  1855  he  had  met 


58  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

Warner,  ex-judge  of  our  highest  court,  strong,  logical,  and  of  spot 
less  reputation  for  integrity,  and  reduced  a  large  majority  to  al 
most  naught  by  commanding  eloquence  on  the  stump.  In  his  race 
for  governor  and  canvassing  as  Presidential  elector  he  had  become 
well  known  throughout  the  State.  He  was  ranked  among  the  very 
best  of  a  host  of  gifted  men. 

He  never  told  an  anecdote,  indulged  in  no  flights  of  fancy  ;  he 
quoted  neither  poet  nor  classic,  yet  he  charmed  and  enchained  his 
audiences. 

This  new  field  suited  his  manner  and  disposition.  His  defiant 
speech  at  Davis  Hall,  his  denunciations  at  the  Bush  Arbor,  at 
Atlanta,  electrified  his  sympathetic  hearers.  A  larger  mass  was 
enthused  by  his  "Notes  on  the  Situation,"  written  with  a  pen 
dipped  in  the  very  gall  of  bitterness.  Invective  was  his  forte,  and 
in  these  efforts  he  excelled  himself.  He  chafed  as  a  caged  lion  as 
he  saw  statute  after  statute  aimed  by  Congress  against  the  political 
equality  of  his  native  State  and  her  rightful  rule  thrice  displaced 
by  martial  law.  He  believed  all  those  measures  "  unconstitutional, 
null,  and  void,"  and  that  his  would  l>e  the  glory  of  having  them 
so  denounced. 

He  and  his  courageous  comrades  revived  the  drooping  hopes  and 
rekindled  the  courage  of  our  people,  and  soon  saw  Georgia  resume 
her  normal  position  as  a  State  in  the  Union,  and  strengthen  by  her 
counsel  and  example  her  struggling  sisters  of  the  South.  But  in 
all  else  there  was  signal  failure.  The  changes  wrought  by  Avar 
were  unalterable,  and  he  accepted  the  inevitable. 

These  topics  are  mentioned  only  because  they  cover  so  large  a 
part  of  Mr.  HILL'S  public  life.  They  are  of  great  weight  and  full 
of  interest,  but  may  not  be  considered  now.  Better  that  the  embers 
die  out  than  that  they  should  be  rekindled  by  exposure.  With 
restoration  came  peace  and  commerce  and  social  intercourse.  Pas 
sions  cooled,  old  memories  revived,  common  interests  urged  to 
common  thought  and  purpose. 

Soon  he  was  elected  Representative  and  then  Senator.  The 
positions  assigned  him  here  on  committees  and  in  debates  show 
that  his  reputation  was  well  established  and  national.  His  conduct 
here,  his  votes  and  speeches  have  passed  into  history.  They  are 


ADDRESS  OF  MB.  HAMMOND,  OF  GEORGIA.  59 

too  recent  to  need  comment  or  justify  discussion  now.  The  pride 
of  his  State  was  seconded  by  the  country  which  cheerfully  counted 
him  among  the  great  men  of  our  age. 

His  name  may  not  be  associated  with  any  great  reform;  his 
genius  may  not  be  crystalli/ed  in  any  statute  of  our  country.  This 
may  be  because  he  belonged  to  that  large  class  of  orators  who  build 
not  themselves,  but  by  encouragement  and  criticism  perfect  the 
building  of  others.  Or  it  may  be  that  a  tree  so  frequently  and  so 
violently  transplanted  could  not  yield  its  natural  fruitage  until 
time  had  cured  its  shocks.  That  time  was  not  given.  In  the 
/enith  of  his  powers  the  end  came. 

That  tongue  so  eloquent  was  being  by  a  cancer  destroyed.  The 
cruel  knife,  intended  to  stay,  seemed  but  to  hasten  the  catastrophe. 
Nor  nature  nor  art  could  arrest  its  progress.  With  mind  unim 
paired  he  waited  and  patiently  suffered  the  tortures  which  preceded 
death.  As  the  sun  rose  upon  the  earth  on  the  16th  of  August  last, 
he  was  gone. 

His  long  suffering  had  mellowed  admiration  into  love.  Our 
capital  city  was  draped  in  mourning,  its  business  stopped,  and  its 
organizations,  private  and  public,  vied  with  each  other  in  expres 
sions  of  sorrow.  All  parts  of  our  State  sent  delegations  to  his 
funeral.  Through  a  long  lane  of  sympathizing  fellow-citizens, 
Representatives  and  Senators  bore  him  to  his  grave. 

They  had  sat  in  the  church  to  which  he  belonged  and  heard  the 
pastor,  his  life-long  friend,  tell  of  his  early  conversion  and  his  en 
during  faith.  Long  after  his  power  of  speech  was  gone,  as  the 
cruel  cancer  was  eating  his  earthly  life  away,  he  thought  and  wrote 
of  life  eternal.  Once,  when  engaged  in  such  high  thought,  he  had 
read  by  his  pastor  Paul's  grand  reasoning  about  the  fact  and 
necessity  of  the  resurrection.  Responding,  with  tremulous,  dying 
hand  he  wrote : 

If  a  grain  of  com  will  die  and  then  rise  again  in  infinite  beauty,  why  may 
not  I  die  and  then  rise  again  in  infinite  beauty  and  life?  How  is  the  last  a 
greater  mystery  than  the  first?  And  by  so  much  as  I  exceed  the  grain  of 
corn  in  this  life,  why  may  I  not  exceed  it  in  the  new  life  ?  How  can  we  limit 
the  power  of  Him  who  made  the  grain  of  corn  to  die,  and  then  made  the 
same  grain  again  in  such  wonderful  newness  of  life? 

His  great  soul  had  grasped  the  sublime  "  mystery  "  that  "  this 


60      LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

corruptible  must  put  on  incorruptiou  and  this  mortal  must  put  on 
immortality."  And  when,  on  a  later  occasion,  he  wrote  for  this 
man  of  God,  "I  cannot  suppress  a  certain  elation  at  the  thought  of 
going,"  he  had  evidently  caught  the  triumphant  enthusiasm  of  the 
Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  when  he  concluded  : 

So  when  this  corruptible  shall  have  put  on  incorruptiou,  and  this  mortal 
shall  have  put  on  immortality,  then  shall  be  brought  to  pass  the  saying  that 
is  written,  Death  is  swallowed  up  in  victory. 

O  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?     O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory  ? 


Address  of  Mr.  SPEER,  of  Georgia. 

Mr.  SPPLVKER  :  To  eulogize  the  deeds  and  preserve  the  memories 
of  those  who  either  in  peace  or  war  have  conferred  benefits  or  lus 
ter  on  their  country  has  ever  among  the  civilized  been  regarded  a 
privilege  and  a  duty. 

The  desire  of  inspiring  an  ambition  to  emulate  such  examples 
has  doubtless  given  birth  to  such  usages  and  sentiments.  Nor  can 
it  be  denied  that  the  means  are  conducive  to  a  beneficial  end.  The 
human  mind  is  so  constituted  that  it  is  not  only  interested,  it  is 
aroused  and  stimulated  by  lofty  ideals  of  excellence.  Indeed,  a  clear 
conception  of  what  has  been  done,  and  therefore  what  can  be  done, 
is  an  important  factor  in  achieving  eminence  in  any  profession  or 
in  any  enterprise. 

Caesar  might  never  have  won  his  splendid  triumphs  as  soldier  and 
statesman  had  he  not  chanced  to  see  in  an  obscure  town  in  Spain  a 
statue  of  Alexander  the  Great.  His  passion  for  'military  glorv 
was  then  and  there  fired  by  the  thought  that  the  Macedonian  at 
thirty  years  of  age  had  conquered  the  world,  while  he,  though  thirty- 
five,  had  achieved  but  little  renown.  It  is  certain  that  an  intense 
interest  in  the  lives  and  deeds  of  the  great  men  of  their  common 
wealths  formed  no  small  part  of  the  patriotism  of  the  ancient  Greeks. 
Athens  was  but  a  vast  museum  of  architecture,  sculpture,  and  paint 
ing  dedicated  to  the  national  glory  and  the  worship  of  the  gods. 
The  city  was  full  of  the  memorials  of  actual  history.  Its  youth 
were  perpetually  surrounded  with  incentives  to  patriotic  devotion. 
Every  street  and  square  from  the  Piraeus  to  the  Acropolis  was 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  SPEER,  OF  GEORGIA.  61 

adorned  with  statues  (by  the  most  consummate  masters  that  ever 
gave  life  to  marble)  of  the  great  men  of  the  republic:  Solon  the 
lawgiver, Conon  the  admiral,  Pericles  the  mightiest  of  their  states 
men,  and  Demosthenes  the  prince  of  their  orators,  in  imperishable 
marble,  gave  inspiration  to  the  Athenian  youth. 

Twenty-three  centuries  have  not  extinguished  this  sentiment  of 
veneration  for  the  illustrious  dead.  It  still  lives  to  console  and  ele 
vate  humanity.  Its  memorials  are  found  to-day  in  every  civilized 
land.  On  the  banks  of  the  Danube,  that  historic  river  whose  waves 
have  witnessed  the  march  of  the  hordes  of  Attila  and  the  paladins 
of  Charlemagne,  whose  shores  have  echoed  to  the  tramp  of  the 
Roman  legions,  the  hymns  of  the  crusaders,  and  the  artillery  of 
Napoleon,  stands  a  noble  structure  of  marble  called  the  Hall  of 
Heroes,  a  modern  Valhalla,  filled  with  the  effigies  of  the  great  men 
of  all  Germany.  "  By  the  soft,  blue  waters  of  Lake  Lucerne,"  says 
the  eloquent  Meagher,  "stands  the  chapel  of  William  Tell.  In 
the  black  aisle  of  the  old  cathedral  of  Innspruck  the  peasant  of  the 
Tyrol  kneels  before  the  statue  of  Andrew  Hofer.  In  her  new  senate 
hall  England  bids  her  sculptors  place  the  images  of  her  noblest  sons, 
her  Hampden  and  her  Russel.  In  the  great  American  Republic, 
in  that  capital  city  which  bears  his  name,  rises  the  monument  of 
the  Father  of  his  Country."  Yes,  even  in  young  America,  the  ideal 
izing  power  of  the  painter  and  the  sculptor  are  employed  to  kindle 
the  generous  ambition  of  the  youthful  aspirant  to  fame.  Sir,  how 
apposite  in  this  connection  are  the  melodious  verses  of  Cowper: 

Patriots  have  toiled,  and  in  their  country's  cause 
Bled  nobly  ;  and  their  deeds,  as  they  deserve, 
Receive  proud  recompense.     We  give  in  charge 
Tbeir  names  to  the  sweet  lyre.     The  historic  muse, 
Proud  of  the  treasure,  marches  with  it  down 
To  latest  times ;  and  sculpture  in  her  turn 
Gives  bond  in  stone  and  ever-duriug  brass 
To  guard  them  and  immortalize  her  trust. 

We  should  not  defraud  the  illustrious  dead  of  their  rightful  re 
ward,  that  reward  which  is  the  great  moral  compensation  for  con 
temporaneous  prejudice  and  injustice.  Xay,  more,  we  should  never 
take  away  from  coining  generations  the  strongest  incentive  to  pa 
triotism,  to  the  love  and  service  of  their  country.  Rather  let  it  be 


62  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

proclaimed  by  memorial  service  and  monumental  marble,  by  noble 
and  beautiful  art,  that  those  who  consecrate  their  talents  or  their 
lives  to  the  state  will  not,  shall  not,  be  forgotten ;  that  they  shall 
live  in  memory  so  long  as  men  shall  reverence  law,  honor  patriotism, 
or  love  liberty.  Thus  may  we  hope  for  a  long  and  glorious  bead- 
roll  of  great  statesmen  and  gallant  soldiers,  and  that  it  will  never 
be  said  of  this  Union  of  States  as  was  said  of  ancient  Rome,  "Oc- 
tavius  has  a  party  and  Antony  has  a  party,  but  the  Republic  has 
no  party." 

In  conformity,  then,  with  a  usage  sanctioned  by  the  wisdom  of 
ages  of  civilization,  we  have  assembled  to  pay  a  national  tribute  of 
respect  to  the  memory  of  BP:XJAMIX  H.  HILL,  the  late  distinguished 
Senator  of  Georgia.  He  has  already  been  laid  to  rest  beneath  the 
soil  of  that  State  which  gave  him  birth,  and  which  he  served  so  long 
and  loved  so  well.  Never  were  public  esteem  and  private  affection 
more  signally  manifested  than  at  his  obsequies.  The  legislature  of 
Georgia  has  ordered  his  portrait  to  be  placed  on  the  walls  of  the 
capitol.  Public  munificence  has  projected  a  stately  monument  to 
mark  the  place  of  his  burial  and  as  a  token  of  admiration  for  his 
talents,  recognition  of  his  patriotic  services,  and  respect  and  affection 
for  his  memory. 

But  it  is  not  extravagant  to  say  that  neither  funeral  pomp  nor 
public  eulogy,  neither  the  painter's  pencil  nor  the  sculptor's  chisel, 
can  do  that  for  his  memory  which  he  has  done  for  it  himself. 

It  will  not  be  expected  of  me  to  undertake  the  superfluous  task 
of  dwelling  in  detail  on  the  events  of  his  life,  or  of  attempting  an 
elaborate  delineation  of  his  character.  This  has  been  done  by  the 
ablest  writers  of  the  press  with  an  actiteness  of  analysis  and  an  opu 
lence  of  illustration  that  will  convey  to  posterity  a  vivid  conception 
of  the  great  subject.  This  has  been  appropriately  done  in  wise  and 
eloquent  words  in  the  other  wing  of  the  Capitol  by  Senators  who 
have  listened  with  admiration  to  the  voice  of  our  now  silent  but 
once  matchless  orator.  They  may  have  agreed  with  him  or  they 
may  have  differed  from  him,  but  they  could  not  fail  to  recognize  his 
lofty  and  chivalrous  bearing,  his  commanding  ability,  his  eloquent 
reasoning,  his  ardent  and  devoted  patriotism.  These  will  be  remem 
bered  when  the  asperities  of  political  controversy  are  forgotten.  I 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  SPEER,  OF  GEORGIA.  63 

can  say,  however,  from  an  intimate  personal  acquaintance  with  him, 
that  he  was  a  man  of  unimpeachable  integrity,  ever  evincing  by  pre 
cept  and  example  his  respect  for  morality  and  religion.  The  moral, 
the  religions,  the  charitable,  the  educational  institutions  of  his  State 
have  lost  in  him  an  influential  friend  and  a  generous  benefactor. 

His  name  was  a  tower  of  strength  to  every  good  cause  in  which 
it  was  enlisted.  One  trait  only  will  I  stress  in  this  presence,  and 
that  is  his  patriotism.  He  loved  his  country,  his  whole  country, 
its  Constitution,  its  laws,  its  liberties.  He  was  a  man  to  whom  the 
whole  country  was  ever  more  than  a  part.  Originally  a  member  of 
the  old  Whig  party,  an  enthusiastic  disciple  of  Clay  and  Webster, 
he  loved  as  they  did  the  Union  cemented  by  the  blood  of  our  Rev 
olutionary  fathers.  He  regarded  that  Union  as  a  perpetual  bond 
of  national  brotherhood,  and  as  associated  with  the  most  precious 
memories  of  the  past  and  freighted  with  the  brightest  hopes  of  the 
future.  In  the  darkest  period  of  that  fierce  sectional  controversy 
between  the  Xorth  and  the  South,  which  ripened  into  one  of  the 
most  gigantic  wars  in  the  bloodstained  annals  of  our  race  until  hope 
had  been  swept  away  by  the  fiery  tide  of  revolution,  he  continued 
to  hope  and  to  temper  the  counsels  of  the  people.  He  was  there 
after  throughout  the  struggle  steadfast  to  his  kindred  and  his  people. 
This  is  characteristic  of  the  man,  and  will  be  appreciated  by  the 
generous  everywhere.  His  course  was  such  that  it  could  not  be  said 
of  him  as  Dr.  Johnson  said  of  Junius: 

Finding  sedition  in  the  ascendant  he  was  able  to  advance  it;  finding  the 
nation  combustible,  he  was  able  to  inflame  it. 

He  knew  that  our  system  of  government,  like  all  human  institu 
tions,  however  wise  in  theory  and  successful  in  its  general  operation, 
is  liable  to  abuse;  that  unwise  laws  were  sometimes  enacted;  that 
salutary  laws  were  sometimes  evaded  and  even  resisted;  that  party 
spirit,  the  bane  of  all  free  institutions,  which  Washington  himself 
pronounced  the  worst  enemy  of  popular  government,  was  sometimes 
pushed  to  the  verge  of  remorseless  and  maddening  convulsion.  But 
he  never  despaired  of  the  Republic.  He  had  little  sympathy  with 
that  dangerous  folly  which  pretends  that  our  national  prosperity  is 
on  the  wane;  that  the  meridian  of  our  country's  glory  ha.s  been 
reached  and  passed;  that  nothing  is  to  be  expected  but  venality  in 


64  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

legislative  bodies  and  corruption  in  our  courts  of  justice;  that  the 
"American  Astrea,  like  the  goddess  of  old,  has  fled  to  the  stars." 

He  held,  and  wisely  held,  that  the  founders  of  our  Government 
and  their  descendants  had  accomplished  more  and  better  results  with 
in  the  century  of  their  existence  than  had  ever  been  accomplished 
in  the  same  time  in  the  history  of  any  race.  He  was  persuaded  that 
they  had  secured  for  themselves  a  larger  amount  of  the  substantial 
blessings  of  life  than  are  enjoyed  by  any  people  on  the  globe. 

He  believed  that  our  country  might,  and  by  the  blessing  of  Provi 
dence  would,  reach  a  height  of  prosperity  of  which  the  world  as  yet 
lias  seen  no  example. 

But  L  forbear.  Six  months  have  passed  since  he  was  taken  from 
us.  His  protracted  sufferings  and  hopeless  disease  prepared  us  for 
the  inevitable  result.  But  I  can  not  but  feel  to-day,  as  I  did  when 
it  was  first  announced  that  Senator  HILL  was  dead,  that  Georgia 
had  hardly  another,  I  might  say  not  another,  such  life  to  lose.  He 
was  unselfish,  thoughtful  of  all,  generous  and  kind  to  all.  His  life 
and  his  labors  were  consecrated  to  the  welfare  and  happiness  of 
others;  and,  more  than  all,  "for  the  profit  of  the  people,  for  the 
advancement  of  the  nation." 


Address  of  Mr.  TUCKER,  of  Virginia. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  In  the  natural  grief  which  Georgia  feels  for  the 
loss  of  her  great  son,  it  is  not  fitting  that  Virginia  should  manifest 
her  sympathy  in  silence  at  the  tomb  of  one,  who  often  said  he  felt 
like  standing  in  her  presence  ever  with  uncovered  brow.  In  this 
public  calamity  which  touches  the  whole  country  Virginia  begs  to 
lay  the  tribute  of  her  respect  on  his  grave. 

My  acquaintance  with  the  late  Senator  HILL  began  with  our  en 
trance  into  this  Hall  as  members  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress.  It 
ripened  into  intimacy  from  an  association  as  members  of  the  Com 
mittee  on  Ways  and  Means.  That  relation  has  no  doubt  made  it 
seem  appropriate  that  I  should  have  been  invited  to  say  something 
on  this  occasion. 

Mr.  HILL  was  born  in  Georgia  in  September,  1823,  of  a  parent- 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  TUCKER,  OF   VIRGINIA.  65 

age  which  was  of  English  origin  and  had  for  generations  lived  in 
his  native  State.  He  loved  her  with  the  devotion  of  a  true  and 
faithful  son.  His  father,  though  not  very  liberally  educated,  cov 
eted  high  culture  for  his  children,  and  secured  a  classical  education 
for  his  distinguished  son,  which  he  completed  at  the  University  of 
Georgia,  at  Athens,  in  1844. 

Mr.  HILL  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1 845,  and  readied  that  em 
inence  in  his  profession  early  in  his  career  which  great  talents, 
fidelity,  and  enthusiasm  will  always  secure.  He  entered  the 
legislative  halls  of  Georgia  as  early  as  1851.  He  was  a  candidate 
for  Congress  in  1855  and  for  governor  in  1857,  but  was  defeated 
on  both  occasions  on  political  grounds ;  but  it  speaks  strongly  for 
his  rapid  rise  in  public  estimation  that  at  so  early  an  age  he  was 
nominated  for  the  chief  executive  office  of  that  great  Common 
wealth. 

He  was  a  decided  Whig  in  politics,  and  was  on  the  electoral  ticket 
of  Bell  and  Everett  in  the  memorable  contest  of  1860. 

The  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  the  Presidency  in  that  year  caused 
the  call  of  the  convention  in  Georgia  in  January,  1861,  which  passed 
the  ordinance  for  the  secession  of  that  State  from  the  Union.  To 
that  convention  Mr.  HILL  was  elected;  and  in  its  debates  he  took 
a  prominent  part  in  opposition  to  secession  and  in  favor  of  awaiting 
in  the  Union  the  results  of  the  triumph  of  the  Republican  party. 

When  the  convention  decided  against  his  views  he  threw  himself 
with  all  the  ardor  of  his  powerful  intellect  into  the  cause  of  the 
Confederacy.  He  was  elected  to  the  provisional  congress  at  Mont 
gomery,  and  afterward  to  the  senate  of  the  Confederate  States,  in 
which  he  served  his  State  with  great  zeal  and  signal  ability  until 
the  close  of  the  war.  He  was  in  1865  arrested  and  imprisoned  in 
Fort  Lafayette  for  some  time  by  the  Federal  authorities ;  and  upon 
his  release  returned  to  the  bar,  practicing  his  profession  with  great 
success  and  participating  with  the  Democratic  party  in  the  political 
questions  of  the  period  of  reconstruction.  He  was  elected  to  the 
Forty-fourth  Congress  and  was  assigned  by  Mr.  Speaker  Kerr  to 
a  position  on  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means,  of  which  my  hon 
orable  friend  from  Illinois  [Mr.  Morrison]  was  chairman.  Of 
that  committee  there  remain  in  this  House  but  three  members,  the 
5  H 


66  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

then  chairman,  the  present  honorable  chairman  of  the  committee 
[Mr.  Kelley],  and  myself. 

In  January,  1876,  the  debate  on  the  amnesty  bill  was  opened 
with  such  a  display  of  political  excitement  and  sectional  bitterness 
as  I  have  never  seen  since  that  time,  and  which  I  am  glad  to  hope 
will  never  be  seen  again  in  this  Hall. 

In  that  debate  no  one  who  heard  it  can  ever  forget  the  parlia 
mentary  eloquence  and  ability  of  Mr.  Elaine  and  of  General  Gar- 
field,  and  the  no  less  skillful  and  powerful  speech  of  Mr.  HILL.  It 
was  the  battle  of  giants,  and  Mr.  HILL  was  the  equal  of  any  man 
who  took  part  in  it.  It  placed  him  at  once  in  the  front  rank  of 
debaters  in  the  American  Congress. 

Whether  in  the  labors  of  the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means  on 
the  questions  of  tariff  and  finance,  or  in  the  discussions  in  the  House, 
Mr.  HILL  continued  while  a  member  of  this  bodv  to  rise  higher 

ti 

and  higher  in  public  estimation  until  his  election  to  the  Senate  in 
the  winter  of  1877. 

It  is. not  too  much  to  say  that  as  a  Senator  he  fully  maintained 
his  high  reputation,  and  measured  swords  in  debate  on  few  occa 
sions  in  which  he  was  not  victor,  and  in  none  in  which  he  was  van 
quished. 

A  mortal  disease,  insidious  in  its  progress  and  painful  in  its  na 
ture,  ended  his  life  in  the  summer  of  last  year,  and  the  grave  has 
closed  upon  a  career  wrhich,  though  not  prolonged  to  old  age,  was 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  memorable  in  our  parliamentary  his 
tory. 

The  elements  which  make  up  the  character  of  a  remarkable  man 
it  is  interesting  to  analyze  and  portray.  I  feel  incompetent  to  do 
so  satisfactorily  in  this  case,  for  while  our  intercourse  was  always 
familiar  and  cordial,  our  relations  were  not  so  close  and  confiden 
tial  as  to  have  enabled  me  to  judge  and  measure  him  with  critical 
accuracy. 

His  tall  and  striking  person,  his  grave  and  thoughtful  face,  his 
clear  but  dreamy  eye,  and  the  gleam  of  sunshine  which  lit  up  his 
countenance  when  friendly  intercourse  detached  his  thoughts  from 
the  subject  in  which  his  mind  was  absorbed,  all  combined  to  inter 
est,  attract,  and  impress  every  person  who  came  in  contact  with 


ADDRESS   OF  Mil.    TUCK  Ell,   OF    I'lRGINIJ.  67 

him.  His  ringing  voice;  his  earnest,  sometimes  vehement,  man 
ner;  his  bold  and  aggressive  style ;  his  strong,  clear,  and  logical 
reasoning;  his  exalted  and  eloquent  declamation,  and  withal  his 
self-reliant  and  confident  assertion  of  his  views,  made  him  one  of 
the  most  powerful  and  impressive  speakers  of  his  time. 

He  worked  with  intense  and  concentrated  energy.  His  mind 
was  capable  of  great  abstraction.  In  the  companionship  of  his  own 
thoughts  he  became  often  unconscious  of  all  around  him,  and  his 
intellectual  powers  then  glowed  with  the  fires  of  his  own  enthusiasm. 

He  was  an  intellectual  athlete.  His  strength  was  not  mere  dead 
force,  but  his  sinewy  frame  enabled  him  to  turn  an  adversary  in 
the  decisive  wrestle,  when  he  himself  seemed  to  be  overthrown. 
He  was  not  technical  in  his  reasoning,  but  cut  down  to  the  root  of 
the  matter  of  debate.  His  nature  was  bold  and  aggressive.  If  his 
foe  was  in  ambush,  he  uncovered  him  and  forced  him  into  the  open 
field.  His  tactical  method  was  assault.  He  struck  for  his  enemy's 
center  and  rarely  attacked  his  flank.  But  when  assailed  and  in 
retreat,  he  would  suddenly  turn  upon  his  foe,  retrieve  his  loss,  at 
tack  on  flank  or  center  as  best  he  might,  and  snatch  victory  from 
the  jaws  of  defeat.  He  was  formidable  in  the  opening  of  battle, 
chiefly  for  attack,  but  he  was  as  dangerous  in  retreat  at  its  close, 
when  pressed  by  a  too  confident  opponent.  Disaster  did  not  dis 
may — mishap  did  not  demoralize  him.  His  ample  resources  were 
adequate  to  any  emergency,  and  lie  would  convert  what  seemed  a 
fatal  mistake  into  the  source  of  a  final  triumph  by  his  quick  and 
bold  repulse  of  his  assailant,  which  he  often  pushed  to  a  complete 
rout  of  his  forces.  He  argued  from  the  workshop  of  his  own 
brain.  He  intensified  thought  upon  the  issue,  and  discarding  au 
thority  and  extrinsic  aids,  drew  from  the  well-furnished  armory  of 
his  own  mind  the  weapons  and  munitions  for  the  conduct  of  his 
warfare. 

These  qualities  made  him  a  great  advocate  at  the  bar,  whether 
before  juries  or  courts,  and  a  great  debater  in  the  halls  of  legisla 
tion  ;  indeed,  as  formidable  in  these  respects  as  any  man  of  his  day. 

I  believe  he  thought  best  on  his  feet.  The  fervor  of  his  intel 
lect  made  his  arguments  present  convictions  which  might  pass  away 
and  give  place  to  others  as  strong  under  mental  action  at  another 


68  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

time.  To  this  peculiarity  in  his  mental  operations  was  due  what 
seemed  alack  of  consistency  sometimes  in  the  conclusions  he  reached. 
His  intellectual  activity  was  so  powerful  as  to  make  him  seem  in 
tolerant  to  his  opponents;  but  I  do  not  believe  it  touched  his  heart. 
He  struck  the  shield  of  his  foe  as  a  knight  in  the  tournament, 
vigorously  but  without  animosity;  and  when  the  strife  was  ended 
he  could  lift  up  the  adversary  he  had  struck  down  and  clasp  him 
in  friendly  regard  with  the  hand  which  dealt  the  blow. 

In  his  social  life,  while  often  abstracted  by  the  thoughts  which  ab 
sorbed  him,  he  was  genial,  kind,  and  loving.  Generous  and  brave, 
he  grappled  to  him  friends  with  hooks  of  steel.  Honest  in  his 
dealing,  sincere  and  truthful  in  his  intercourse,  and  cordial  in  his 
friendships,  he  died  mourned  by  hosts  of  warm  admirers  and  fol 
lowers. 

He  was  not,  I  think,  a  great  reader  of  books.  For  works  of  fic 
tion  he  had  no  taste.  He  told  me  once  he  had  never  read  one  of 
Scott's  novels,  after  I  had  playfully  called  him  in  debate  a  Dalgetty, 
of  whose  name  and  character  he  was  ignorant.  But  his  reading  was 
such  as  strengthened  his  powerful  mind,  and  furnished  his  style  with 
the  materials  which  gave  grace  and  beauty  to  the  solid  and  simple 
Doric  of  his  severe  and  classic  oratory. 

It  was  natural  for  such  a  man  to  have  ambition.  The  eaglet  in 
his  home  nest  on  the  mountain  cliff  feels  in  his  unfledged  wing  the 
power  to  soar  toward  the  object  on  which  he  ever  looks  with  un- 
blenched  eye.  So  genius,  with  prophetic  instinct,  aspires  to  achieve 
its  conscious  destiny.  It  seeks,  or  at  least  may  not,  without  fault, 
put  aside  the  opportunity  which  will  enable  it  to  do  so.  When  Lord 
Selborne  reached  the  woolsack  some  friend  congratulated  him  on 
attaining  the  summit  of  his  ambition.  In  substance  he  replied, 
"Xot  so;  I  have  gained  the  opportunity  to  serve  my  country;  the 
summit  of  my  ambition  is  to  serve  her  well,  and  to  do  good." 

Such  ambition  is  a  noble  virtue.  The  aspiration  to  uphold  the 
right,  to  destroy  the  wrong,  and  to  do  good,  is  all  of  human  glory 
which  it  is  fit  for  human  life  to  aspire  to  win.  That  passion  for 
place  and  office,  without  consciousness  of  ability  to  fill  it  well  and 
for  the  public  good,  is  base  and  mean ;  it  is  a  vice,  the  vice  of  our 
day,  and  leads  to  crime. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HOUSE,  OF  TENNESSEE.  69 

Mr.  HILL  aspired  for  public  positions  from  the  self-conscious 
ness  of  his  fitness  to  serve  his  country  in  and  through  them.  In 
him  it  was  a  noble  virtue. 

He  bore  his  prolonged  and  painful  illness  with  patience,  fortitude, 
and  resignation.  As  the  hopes  of  continued  life  faded  aAvay  the 
light  of  immortality  gleamed  upon  his  latterjdays  with  the  assurance 
of  peace  and  eternal  joy.  The  tongue  which  had  thrilled  the  multi 
tude  and  electrified  the  forum  and  the  Senate,  palsied  by  his  mortal 
disease,  faltered  and  was  almost  still.  Yet  it  cheers  us  to  know  that 
in  the  death  valley  through  which  his  great  soul  was  called  to  pass, 
God  gave  that  tongue  the  power  to  whisper  in  tones  of  touching 
tenderness  and  faith  as  his  eagle  eye  gazed  upon  the  opening  glories 
of  the  immortal  life,  "Almost  home!" 

The  paths  of  glory  lead  but  to  the  grave. 

Xo  farther?  Ay  !  through  the  grave,  where  human  glory  ends, 
the  Christian  hope  plants  our  feet  upon  that  path  which  leads  to 
celestial  glory  in  the  bosom  of  our  Father  and  our  God  ! 


Address  of  Mr.  HOUSE,  of  Tennessee. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  When  the  hand  of  death  struck  the  name  of 
BENJAMIN  H.  HILL,  of  Georgia,  from  the  roll  of  Senators  the 
sad  event  was  deplored  not  only  by  the  State  that  had  honored  him, 
but  by  the  whole  country.  All  realized  the  fact  that  a  man  of 
great  intellectual  power  had  fallen,  and  that  a  vacancy  had  been 
made  in  the  national  councils  which  could  not  be  readily  supplied. 

I  well  remember  the  first  time  I  ever  met  him.  It  was  at  a 
maws-meeting  during  the  Presidential  campaign  of  1860,  at  Knox- 
ville,  Tennessee.  His  fame  even  at  that  time,  when  he  wras  com 
paratively  a  young  man,  had  traveled  beyond  the  limits  of  his 
own  State.  I  recall  most  vividly  the  impression  he  made  on  me 
on  that  occasion  as  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  powerful  popular 
orators  to  whom  I  had  ever  listened.  The  crowd  was  numbered  by 
the  thousand,  and  the  speaking  took  place  in  the  open  air  in  a 
beautiful  grove  near  the  town.  Without  much  seeming  effort  on 


70  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.    HILL. 

his  purl  lie  held  the  undivided  attention  of  the  vast  assembly  dur 
ing  an  address  of  some  two  or  three  hours.  I  can  never  forget  the 
trepidation  and  misgivings  with  which  I  arose,  according  to  the 
programme  of  the  day,  to  address  the  audience  on  the  same  side 
of  the  question,  through  fear  that  it  would  be  impossible  for  me 
to  say  anything  that  would  interest  a  crowd  that  had  listened  to 
his  magnificent  effort. 

I  saw  him  no  more  until  I  met  him  at  Richmond  in  the  fall  of 
1861  as  a  member  of  the  provisional  congress  of  the  Confederate 
States.  At  the  end  of  the  provisional  congress  our  paths  diverged. 
He  entered  the  Confederate  senate,  where  he  served  during  the 
remainder  of  the  war. 

The  next  time  I  met  him  was  in  this  Hall  as  a  member  of  the 
Forty-fourth  Congress.  That  Congress  was  the  first  one  after  the 
war  to  which  full  delegations  of  representative  men  were  admitted 
from  the  Southern  States.  They  came  to  Washington  fully  im 
pressed  with  the  difficulties  and  complications  that  surrounded 
them.  They  felt  that  the  people  whom  they  represented,  greatly 
impoverished  by  the  war  and  struggling  to  repair  their  ruined 
fortunes,  would  be  held  to  a  strict  accountability  for  the  actions 
and  utterances  of  their  representatives.  Thus  impressed  and  thus 
appreciating  the  dangerous  ground  on  which  they  stood  and  the 
delicate  relations  which  they  sustained  to  the  Government,  they  de 
termined  to  tread  the  path  of  patriotic  duty  so  plainly  and  firmlv 
that  none  could  fail  to  see  that  they  fully  and  honestly  acquiesced 
in  the  results  of  the  war,  and  were  prepared  to  discharge  in  good 
faith  every  demand  imposed  by  the  conditions  of  a  restored  Union 
and  the  common  welfare  of  a  reunited  people.  I  think  I  know  the 
animus  of  the  Southern  men  who  took  their  seats  in  this  Hall  as 
Representatives  in  the  Forty-fourth  Congress.  Whether  I  have 
stated  it  truly  and  fairly  I  confidently  leave  the  records  they  have 
made  here  to  determine. 

Soon  after  the  assembling  of  that  Congress  a  general  amnesty 
bill  was  introduced  in  the  House  by  Hon.  Samuel  J.  Randall,  of 
Pennsylvania,  being  similar  in  all  respects  to  a  bill  which  had 
on  two  previous  occasions  passed  the  House  of  Representatives  but 
tailed  in.  the  Senate,  The  question  arose  of  admitting  Jefferson 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HOUSE,  OF  TENNESSEE.  71 

Davis  to  the  benefits  of  the  act.  A  distinguished  Representative 
from  Maine  in  the  course  of  his  remarks  used  this  strong  and  em 
phatic  language : 

And  I,  here  before  God,  measuring  niy  words,  knowing  their  full  extent 
and  import,  declare  that  neither  the  deeds  of  the  Duke  of  Alva  in  the  Low 
Countries,  nor  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  nor  the  thumb-screws  and 
engines  of  torture  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition  begin  to  compare  in  atrocity 
with  the  hideous  crime  of  Andersonville.  [Applause  on  the  floor  and  in  the 
galleries.] 

Up  to  this  time  110  Southern  man  had  taken  any  part  in  the  pro 
ceedings.  The  discussion  had  not  proceeded  far  before  it  became 
evident  that  it  was  destined  to  provoke  more  or  less  of  sectional 
bitterness.  The  Representatives  from  the  South  deprecated  and 
deplored  the  agitation  of  questions  growing  out  of  the  Avar.  They 
felt  that  all  such  agitation  was  mischievous  in  its  tendency  and  could 
be  productive  of  no  good  to  their  section  of  the  country,  and  they 
were  anxious  that  all  such  questions  should  be  relegated  to  the 
tribunal  of  history.  But  as  the  discussion  progressed  it  assumed  a 
character  which  in  their  opinion  demanded  that  a  reply  should  be 
made  from  a  Southern  stand-point.  Mr.  HILL,  from  his  known 
intimate  relations  with  Jefferson  Davis  during  the  war,  as  well  as 
from  his  acknowledged  ability,  was  generally  recognized  as  the  most 
appropriate  Southern  man  to  speak  for  his  section  in  a  debate  which 
all  felt  was  destined  to  become  historic.  But  little  time  for  prepa 
ration  was  allowed  him,  as  the  discussion  arose  rather  unexpectedly. 
I  know  he  felt  deeply  the  responsibility  and  delicacy  of  his  posi 
tion.  To  defend  the  Confederate  government  against  the  charges 
brought  against  it  and  maintain  the  honor  of  the  Southern  name 
without  saying  anything  that  would  militate  against  the  interests  of 
the  Southern  people  in  the  prevailing  temper  of  the  public  mind  of 
the  North  required  the  exercise  of  the  coolest  judgment  and  the 
nicest  discrimination.  Thus  restrained  and  shackled  by  the  grave 
considerations  \vhich  surrounded  the  situation,  he  felt  that  he 
could  not  indulge  the  usual  freedom  of  debate,  and  was  therefore 
forced  to  meet  his  adversaries  upon  unequal  terms.  When  he 
arose  to  address  the  House  he  faced  a  most  attentive  audience  upon 
the  floor  and  in  the  crowded  galleries.  It  was  an  occasion  of  dee]) 
solicitude  and  dramatic  interest.  I  will  not  risk  the  imputation 


72  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

of  intruding  improper  and  unwelcome  suggestions  upon  this  occa 
sion  by  even  a  reference  to  the  points  or  details  of  the  discussion. 
It  was  watched  with  the  keenest  interest  by  both  sides  of  this 
Chamber,  and  in  fact  by  the  whole  country.  It  aroused  feelings 
which,  I  am  happy  to  say,  time  has  softened  and  tempered,  and 
which  I  would  be  the  last  to  recall  from  the  shades  of  the  unhappy 
past.  But  justice  to  the  dead  requires  that  I  should  not  omit  to 
say  that,  difficult  as  were  the  requirements  of  the  occasion,  South 
ern  Representatives  and  the  Southern  people  felt  that  their  good 
name  suffered  no  detriment  from  want  of  ability  in  its  defender. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  recall  another  prominent  figure  in  that  memorable 
debate.  James  A.  (rarfield,  of  Ohio,  replied  to  Mr.  HILL.  If  any 
one  had  been  railed  on  at  that  time  to  point  out  two  men  on  this 
floor  whose  robust  health  and  vigorous  manhood  gave  the  greatest 
promise  of  a  long  life,  the  selection  could  not  have  fallen  upon  any 
two  members  more  appropriately  than  upon  James  A.  Garfield  and 
BENJAMIN  H.  HILT,.  How  little  we  know  or  can  know  of  what 
the  future  has  in  store  for  us.  How  soon  were  these  two  distin 
guished  men,  who  encountered  each  other  in  that  debate,  doomed 
to  leave  this  world  under  circumstances  of  lingering  and  protracted 
suffering  that  stirred  the  sympathies  of  all. 

The  former  in  a  short  wliile  was  transferred  by  the  voice  of  his 
State  from  this  House  to  the  Senate,  and  before  he  could  assume  the 
duties  of  a  Senator  the  voice  of  the  American  people  called  him  to 
the  Presidency.  Honors  were  showered  upon  him  with  a  profusion 
that  left  ambition  but  little  to  desire.  He  was  inaugurated  amid 
the  well-wishes  of  the  whole  country.  But  while  the  thickly  clus 
tered  laurels  upon  his  brow  were  yet  wet  with  morning  dew — at  a 
moment  least  expected,  in  the  heart  of  a  populous  city,  in  sight  of 
the  Capitol — the  bullet  of  a  beastly  and  vulgar  assassin  laid  him 
low.  The  national  heart  stood  still  with  horror  when  the  first  shock 
of  the  great  crime  was  felt.  As  the  distinguished  sufferer  lay  upon 
his  bed  of  pain,  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen  of  all  parties  and  all 
sections  visited  the  chamber  where  he  struggled  with  death,  breath 
ing  sympathy  for  his  condition  and  hope  for  his  recovery.  This 
painful  solicitude  was  merged  into  universal  sorrow  when  the  tele 
graph  bore  the  news  to  every  part  of  the  country  that  the  struggle 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HOUSE,  OF  TENNESSEE.  73 

was  over.  The  Democrat  forgot  that  lie  was  a  Republican  Presi 
dent,  and  the  Southern  man  that  he  belonged  to  the  North.  All 
party,  all  sectional  feeling  was  lost  in  the  profound  gloom  that  per 
vaded  the  whole  country.  He  had  met  his  fate  and  borne  his  great 
sufferings  with  a  patient  fortitude  and  lofty  courage  which  silenced 
all  criticism  and  melted  all  hearts,  while  it  intensified  the  universal 
horror  with  which  the  assassin's  crime  was  regarded.  For,  Mr. 
Speaker,  whatever  may  be  true  of  other  peoples  and  other  lauds,  the 
crime  of  assassination  can  never  be  looked  upon  by  the  American 
people  with  other  feelings  than  those  of  execration  and  abhorrence. 
It  is  a  noxious  plant  that  can  never  flourish  in  our  soil.  General 
Garfield  reached  the  highest  position  to  which  human  ambition 
can  aspire ;  but  the  grandest  proportions  which  his  character  ever 
assumed  were  displayed  in  the  heroism  of  his  death-bed. 

Mr.  HILL  was  likewise  called  by  the  voice  of  his  State  to  a  seat 
in  the  Senate.  This  was  a  field  much  better  suited  for  the  exercise 
of  his  great  gifts  than  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  he  soon 
gained  in  that  body  the  front  rank  as  a  debater  and  a  statesman  of 
great  and  varied  attainments.  His  speech  in  the  Senate  in  the  de 
bate  on  the  bill  prohibiting  the  use  of  troops  at  the  polls  was  recog 
nized  by  all  who  heard  it  or  read  it  as  an  effort  of  transcendent 
ability.  His  analysis  and  exposition  of  our  dual  system  of  gov 
ernment,  defining  the  powers  that  belonged  to  the  States  and  those 
that  belonged  to  the  Federal  Government  under  the  Constitution, 
were  thorough  and  profound.  That  speech  alone  was  sufficient  to 
rank  him  in  the  first  class  of  American  statesmen,  and  to  that  class 
he  undoubtedly  belonged.  As  a  debater  he  had  few  equals,  even 
among  the  distinguished  men  whose  learning  and  ability  dignify 
and  adorn  the  American  Senate.  Whether  on  the  hustings  address 
ing  the  masses  of  the  people,  in  the  forum  before  judges  and  juries, 
or  in  the  halls  of  Congress  discussing  great  questions  of  national 
importance,  he  never  failed  to  impress  himself  upon  those  who  heard 
him  as  a  man  of  great  power  and  ability.  No  antagonist,  whatever 
his  fame  or  prowess,  ever  encountered  him  upon  any  of  those  fields 
of  intellectual  gladiature  without  feeling  that  he  stood  in  the  pres 
ence  of  a  foeman  worthy  of  his  steel.  But  in  the  prime  and  pleni 
tude  of  his  great  powers,  when  he  felt  the  solid  ground  of  a  well- 


74  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

earned  national  reputation  beneath  his  feet  and  a  long  and  a  brilliant 
career  of  honor  and  usefulness  opening  up  before  him,  the  admoni 
tion  of  death  came,  not,  it  is  true,  in  the  guise  of  an  assassin's  bul 
let,  but  in  a  form  almost  as  tragic  and  no  less  certain. 

Soon  after  the  meeting  of  the  present  Congress  I  visited  the  court 
room  where  President  Garn'eld's  assassin  was  being  tried  for  his 
life.  On  leaving  I  met  Senator  HILL,  and  we  walked  some  dis 
tance  together.  On  the  way  I  inquired  as  to  the  condition  of  the 
malady  that  had  excited  his  fears  and  the  apprehension  of  his 
friends.  I  found  him  hopeful  and  cheerful,  and  even  buoyant  under 
the  conviction  that  he  had  experienced  the  worst  and  that  he  was 
now  in  a  sure  way  to  permanent  and  final  recovery.  But  not  a 
great  while  afterward  I  heard  that  he  had  been  compelled  to  again 
seek  the  offices  of  his  surgeon.  I  felt  then  that  he  was  a  doomed 
man — doomed  to  excrutiating  suffering  and  certain  death. 

"With  his  robust  constitution  and  great  strength  of  will  he  made 
a  brave  fight  for  his  life,  and  sought  all  the  means  within  his  power 
to  preserve  and  prolong  it.  -But  all  efforts  proved  unavailing,  and 
at  last  he  went  home  to  die.  Within  its  peaceful  bosom,  surrounded 
by  his  family  and  friends,  and  by  the  people  who  admired  and  loved 
and  honored  him,  he  looked  death  calmly  in  the  face  as  he  watched 
its  approaches  day  by  day,  and  knew  that  nothing  could  avert 
the  inevitable  hour.  How  less  than  nothingness  must  have  ap 
peared  to  him  all  the  glories  of  this  world  as  he  passed  through  his 
terrible  ordeal  of  suffering  to  the  grave  that  he  saw  opening  to  re 
ceive  him.  Distinguished  as  was  his  life,  all  the  honors  that  clus 
tered  around  it  fade  into  insignificance  in  the  presence  of  the  sub 
lime  courage  and  Christian  patience  and  resignation  that  crowned 
his  death. 

Men  in  the  whirl  of  busy  life  and  the  carnival  of  earthly  ambi 
tion  may  treat  with  a  sneer  or  a  jest  the  power  of  the  Christian  relig 
ion  to  sustain  the  struggling  soul  amid  the  agonies  of  dissolving 
nature  and  the  gloom  of  approaching  death ;  but  that  sneer  is  robbed 
of  its  sting  and  that  jest  loses  its  point  beside  the  beds  of  protracted 
suffering  and  lingering  death  from  which  the  victorious  spirits  of 
James  A.  Garfield  and  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL  left  their  wasted  tene 
ments  of  clay. 


ADDRESS  OF  ME.    WELLBORN,  OF  TEXAS.  75 

Mr.  Speaker,  sooner  or  later  our  struggle,  with  the  last  enemy  must 
come;  for  whatever  may  be  our  hopes,  our  ambition,  our  schemes 
for  the  future,  or  may  have  been  our  achievements  in  the  past,  we 
may  be  assured  of  one  fact — time  will  overlook  and  death  forget 
none  of  us.  And  in  that  solemn  hour  which  witnesses  the  exchange 
of  worlds  the  obscurest  Christian  that  has  honestly  endeavored  dur 
ing'  an  unobtrusive  life  to  do  his  duty  toward  God  and  man  is  more 
&  ^ 

to  be  envied  than  the  tallest  son  of  intellectual  pride,  though  he  may 
have  walked  the  mountain  ranges  of  human  thought,  without  God 
and  Avithout  hope  in  the  world. 


Address  of  Mr.  WELLBORN,  of  Texas. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  "How  peaceful  and  how  powerful  is  the  grave!" 

The  qualities  here  ascribed  to  humanity's  final  resting-place  are 
none  the  less  true  because  poetically  asserted.  The  grave  is  an 
abode  of  peace  and  an  instrumentality  of  power.  In  both  essentials 
it  is  above  the  vicissitudes  of  time,  "Bulwarked  around  and  armed 
with  rising  towers,"  earthly  forces  cannot  break  through  nor  raze. 

AV'hether  the  sun  shines  in  brightness,  or  the  clouds  droop  murk- 
ilv  ;  whether  gentle  breezes  touch  lightly,  or  the  storm  king  rides 
upon  the  whirlwind,  the  condition  of  the  grave  is  always  that  of 
repose.  Enraged  elements  may  beat  down  the  monument,  remorse 
less  earthquakes  swallow  up  the  vault,  but  in  the  ideal  grave,  of 
which  the  monument  and  vault  are  but  unsubstantial  types,  peace 
abideth  ever. 

Tranquil  is  the  sleep  of  him  upon  whose  honored  grave  the  repre 
sentatives  of  millions  of  people,  arrested  for  awhile  in  their  ordi 
nary  labors,  are  now  laying  the  merited  tributes  of  a  nation's  es 
teem  ;  tranquil  will  it  remain  until  after  the  latter  days,  when  the 
promised  summons  spoke  by  angel  tongue  shall  awake  from  the 
embrace  of  death  and  call  forth  the  released  captive  to  those  awards 
of  brightness  and  joy,  which,  on  the  testimonies  of  time,  have  al 
ready  been  entered  up  in  the  record-book  of  eternity. 

ft  is  not  the  peace,  however,  but  the  power  of  the  grave  which 
the  memorial  services  of  this  hour  most  strongly  proclaim.  Oppor- 


76  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  BILL. 

tunities  neglected  and  opportunities  abused  have  caused  thousands, 
in  dying,  to  leave  behind  them  but  few  evidences  of  their  having 
been ;  or  if  many,  only  sad  proofs  of  misspent  and  mischievous 
lives.  Hence,  "  Lived  to  little  purpose,"  or  "  Lived  to  a  bad  pur 
pose,"  would  be  inscribed  on  many  tombstones  if  they  were  truly 
epitaphed. 

Not  so  of  the  marble  column  which  will  point  coming  genera 
tions  to  the  consecrated  spot  where  lie  entombed  the  ashes  of  Geor 
gia's  great  Senator.  The  matchless  talents  nature  gave  him  were 
early  dedicated  to  high  aims,  and  the  fruitful  opportunities  the  wise 
improvement  of  those  talents  afforded  shaped  to  their  best  uses. 
From  the  peace  of  his  grave,  therefore,  rises  in  power  an  example 
worthy  of  all  imitation,  grandly  illustrating  how  native  talents  use 
fully  employed  and  properly  directed  can  achieve  wide  and  lasting 
renown  in  different  and  difficult  walks  of  life,  and  how,  in  the  su 
preme  solemnity  of  the  last  hour,  when  earth  and  time  are  fast  fad 
ing  from  view,  they  can  nerve  the  soul  of  a  feeble,  wasted  frame 
to  bravely  and  triumphantly  cross  over  the  dark  borders  of  that 
mysterious  land  before  \vhose  veiled  terrors  strong  manhood  is  wont 
to  tremble. 

The  example  thus  presented  for  our  contemplation  is  made  up 
from  the  experiences  of  Mr.  HILL,  in  private,  professional,  and  pub 
lic  life.  Of  the  last  two  only  wW  I  speak,  leaving  to  others  more 
familiar  with  it  the  portrayal  of  the  first.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to 
undertake  a  narrative  of  events,  but  simply  a  hurried  statement  of 
traits  of  diameter  which  distinguished  him  in  the  public  walks  to 
which  fortune  or  inclination  called  him.  And  in  this  I  shall  not 
aim  at  completeness,  but  only  give  a  few  of  the  impressions  made 
on  my  mind  by  a  general  observation  of  him  as  a  lawyer,  an  orator, 
a  statesman,  and  a  patriot ;  nor  shall  I  communicate  these  impres 
sions  in  words  of  studied  panegyric.  Too  well  do  I  recognize,  as 
applied  to  Mr.  HILL,  the  truth  of  the  apostrophe — 

Nature  doth  mourn  for  thee.     There  is  no  need 
For  man  to  strike  his  plaintive  lyre  and  fail, 
As  fail  he  must,  if  he  attempt  thy  praise. 

The  splendid  triumphs  of  Mr.  HILL'S  maturer  years  at  the  bar 
show  that  he  must  have  mastered  the  law  as  a  science  during  the 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.   WELLBORN,  OF  TEXAS.  77 

period  of  his  professional  pupilage.  His  attainments  were  not 
limited  to  a  few  scattering  rules  and  forms  picked  up  from  particu 
lar  decisions  used  in  cases  with  which  he  was  connected,  but  were 
opinions  and  convictions  formed  from  a  searching  and  comprehen 
sive  study  of  jurisprudence  as  a  grand  system  of  principles  resting 
on  immutable  foundations  of  right  and  justice.  For  the  discovery 
of  these  principles  he  looked  to  the  exercise  of  his  own  reason,  and 
in  forensic  contests  relied  mainly  on  a  conscious  knowledge  of  the 
principles  thus  discovered.  Adjudicated  cases  he  regarded  as  but 
instances  illustrating  and  applying  principles.  In  other  words,  his 
own  reason,  strengthened  and  equipped  by  the  pupilage  before  men 
tioned,  discovered  and  applied  general  principles;  precedents  were 
invoked  largely,  if  not  only,  to  support  and  confirm  the  conclusions 
of  his  own  mind.  This  view  accounts  for  the  singular  readiness 
and  accuracy  with  which  he  could  meet  the  various  and  often  un 
expected  exigencies  which  complicated  suits  are  liable  to  develop 
during  the  processes  of  trial. 

Mr.  HILL  combined  within  himself  the  jurist  and  the  advocate. 
He  was  gifted  with  perception  to  discern  and  judgment  to  apply 
appropriate  principles  to  given  states  of  facts.  He  had  also  a  log 
ical  and  perspicuous  style.  The  union  of  these  qualities  made  him 
clear  and  forcible  in  the  statement  and  proof  of  his  premises,  and 
powerful  if  not  resistless  in  the  conclusions  he  sought  to  establish. 
In  law,  as  in  politics,  he  was  distinguished  for  originality  of 
thought  rather  than  scholarship.  His  was  the  grander  power  to 
originate,  not  the  lesser  faculty  of  appropriating  the  creations  of 
others.  He  was  a  model,  not  a  type.  However  so  great  the  excel 
lency  he  may  have  attained  unto  in  other  pursuits,  the  judicial  his 
tory  of  Georgia,  as  well  as  the  traditions  of  her  people,  will  always 
claim  his  legal  attainments  and  forensic  triumphs  as  among  the 
most  brilliant  experiences  of  his  brilliant  life. 

To  intellectuality  Mr.  HILL  added  the  power  to  feel  and  to  will. 
These  mental  endowments,  with  his  fluency  of  language  and  at 
times  impassioned  delivery,  formed  for  him  what  he  became — one 
of  the  great  orators  of  his  day. 

Eloquence  is  defined  to  l)e  "the  utterance  of  strong  emotion  in 
a  manner  adapted  to  excite  correspondent  emotion  in  others.  It 


78       UFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  KEXJAM1X  H.  HILL. 

ordinarily  implies  elevated  and  forcible  thought,  well-chosen  lan 
guage,  an  easy  and  effective  utterance,  and  an  impassioned  manner." 
Those  who  ever  heard  Mr.  HILL  at  the  bar,  in  legislative  halls,  or 
on  the  stump,  when  the  energies  of  his  nature  were  thoroughly 
aroused,  could  not  have  failed  to  recognize  in  his  effort  marvelous 
and  unmistakable  manifestations  of  all  these  qualities.  I  remem 
ber  to  have  heard  a  speech  he  once  made  on  a  noted  occasion  char- 
acterixed  by  a  critical  auditor  as  "  logic  on  fire."  And  it  was  logic, 
burning  logic;  not  the  formal  disputation  of  a  schoolman,  but  the 
power  of  passionately-expressed  thought  unto  the  conviction  and 
moving  of  his  hearers : 

And  each  man  would  turn 
And  gaze  on  his  neighbor's  face, 
That  with  the  like  dumb  wonder  answered  him. 
*        You  could  have  heard 
The  beating  of  your  pulses  while  he  spoke. 

The  traits  and  acquirements  which  made  Mr.  HILL  renowned  as 
a  lawyer  and  an  orator  fitted  him  for  greatness  in  the  arts  of  gov 
ernment.  In  these,  after  political  engagements  and  official  station 
brought  his  mind  to  bear  upon  them,  he  soon  became  deeply  versed, 
and  took  rank  with  the  foremost  statesmen  of  his  day.  The  ques 
tion  "how  can  men  be  best  governed?"  was  with  him  a  subject  of 
profound  thought  and  philosophic  research.  He  rightly  looked 
upon  it  as  a  problem  whose  perfect  solution  the  great  minds  of  the 
world  on  memorable  trials  had  failed  to  work  out.  The  records 
of  history,  which  he  widely  and  usefully  explored,  instructed  him 
that  philosophy,  with  all  its  achievements  in  the  realms  of  political 
science,  had  not  been  able  to  impart  perfection  or  permanency  to 
any  civil  fabric  yet  built,  and  that  even  the  testimonies  to  its  mighti 
est  triumphs  were  chiefly  chronicled  in  the  dismantled  wrecks  of 
the  institutions  it  founded.  He  had  fully  learned  the  great  lesson 
taught  by  ages  of  experience,  that  human  infirmities  will  always 
impress  their  images  on  political  as  well  as  other  human  establish 
ments,  and  that  the  Utopia  of  fiction  could  never  exist  in  fact. 

The  Constitution  of  the  American  Union,  to  which  his  best 
thought  was  long  and  profitably  given,  he  considered  the  nearest 
approach  to  perfection  in  governmental  structure  human  effort  had 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.    WELLliORN,  OF  TEXAS.  79 

yet  attained.  Under  the  methods,  however,  which  even  this  in 
strument  provided,  lie  was  prepared  to  see  measures  consummated 
which  liis  judgment  condemned  as  errors  and  told  him  were  fraught 
with  disaster  and  woe.  Emergencies  of  this  kind,  the  crucial  tests 
of  character,  did  not  confound  his  faculties,  but  rather  stimulated 
them  to  the  most  reliable,  if  not  highest  exertions  of  statesmanship, 
namely,  to  see  when  a  thing  was  inevitable,  and,  accepting  it  as  such 
to  make  the  best  of  the  situation,  however  bad  it  might  be.  He 
lost  no  time,  therefore,  in  bewailing  accomplished  facts,  but  when 
proposed  measures  against  which  he  warred  became  irreversible 
policies,  his  quick,  comprehensive  perception  took  in  the  whole  sit 
uation,  and  he  at  once  applied  himself  not  to  a  continuance  of  vain 
resistance  but  the  more  sensible  work  of  so  controlling  these  poli 
cies  as  to  avert,  as  far  as  possible,  the  ruin  they  threatened,  and 
bring  out  of  them  the  best  attainable  results.  This  quality  of  states 
manship,  which,  on  close  analysis,  will  be  found  to  be  nothing- 
more  nor  less  than  the  power  of  judicious  selection  between  evils, 
Mr.  HILL  notably  exhibited  in  his  political  course  prior  to  and 
during  the  late  war. 

From  1855  up  to  the  passage  of  the  declaratory  resolution  by 
the  convention  of  Georgia,  January  18,  1861,  he  combated  the 
disunion  sentiment  with  all  the  force  and  earnestness  of  his  nature. 
The  motives  which  influenced  him  were  his  attachment  to  the  Union 
under  the  Constitution  and  his  desire  to  avert  the  calamities  he 
profoundly  believed  war  would  bring  upon  the  South. 

For  years  he  did  all  man  could  do  to  stay  the  swelling  tide  of 
popular  sentiment  drifting  his  State  and  section,  as  he  firmly  be 
lieved,  into  a  night  of  storm  and  tempest  whose  starless  gloom 
would  prove  iutenser  than  Memphian  darkness.  His  efforts  were 
ineffectual.  The  declaratory  resolution  before  referred  to,  against 
which  he  voted,  fixed  and  determined  Georgia's  policy. 

The  die  was  cast.  Then  it  was,  under  a  high  sense  of  duty  to 
his  State,  he  accepted  as  inevitable  what  he  had  struggled  to  pre 
vent,  and  recorded  his  vote  in  favor  of  the  ordinance,  believing  this 
to  be  the  initial  and  an  important  step  to  the  unification  of  his 
people  in  the  course  they  had  determined  against  his  judgment  to 
adopt.  Of  the  conspicuous  part  he  bore  during  the  convulsive 


80  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

throes  that  ensued  I  shall  not  speak  further  than  to  say  that  all  in 
vestigations  and  researches  thus  far  made  into  that  period  of  storm 
and  gloom  have  but  served  to  confirm  and  draw  out  in  bolder  lines 
as  his  shining  characteristics  an  intellect  equal  to  every  emergency 
in  which  he  was  placed,  a  fidelity  to  conviction  nothing  could 
swerve,  a  resolution  difficulties  could  not  unsettle,  a  courage  dangers 
could  not  appall,  and  a  fortitude  whose  endurance  no  adversities 
could  exhaust.  This  chapter  of  manly  virtues  will  ever  be  held  in 
warm  remembrance  by  his  associates  in  misfortune  and  defeat,  and 
can  but  be  read  with  respectful  attention  even  by  those  who  condemn 
the  cause  in  which  these  virtues  were  displayed. 

Mr.  HILL'S  abilities  as  a  lawyer,  an  orator,  and  statesman  were 
subjected  while  he  was  in  public  life  to  the  guidance  of  one  grand 
sentiment:  "  The  noblest  motive  is  the  public  good." 

He  loved  his  country  with  an  intensity  and  ardor  only  lofty  and 
generous  natures  can  know.  Good  government  he  considered  the 
highest  boon  that  could  be  bestowed  on  a  people.  For  this  he 
sought  and  studied  long  and  diligently.  The  result  of  this  search 
and  study  was  one  of  the  profoundest  and  most  valued  convictions 
of  his  life,  namely,  that  there  was  no  other  form  of  government  nor 
had  there  ever  been  one  comparable  to  the  Union  under  the  Con 
stitution.  Hear  him  as  he  tells  to  a  listening  Senate,  in  stately 
phrase,  the  excellency  of  this  Government : 

It  is  the  noblest  government,  the  greatest  government  that  human  wis 
dom  ever  devised,  and  it  could  not  have  been  framed  by  human  wisdom  alone. 
The  human  intellect  never  existed  in  this  world  that  could  from  its  own  evo 
lutions  have  wrought  out  such  a  thing  as  this  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  *  *  *  It  is  agovernmeut  such  as  Roman  never  dreamed  of,  such  as 
Grecian  never  conceived,  and  such  as  European  never  had  the  power  to  evolve. 
When  the  American  people,  either  for  the  purpose  of  dismembering  the  States 
or  of  destroying  them,  shall  destroy  this  unparalleled  government,  this  gov 
ernment  without  a  model,  this  government  without  a  prototype,  they  will 
have  destroyed  a  government  which  seems  to  have  been  wisely  adapted  to 
the  peculiar  condition  of  the  time  and  to  all  their  future  wants,  and  they 
will  launch  out  on  a  sea  of  uncertainty  the  result  of  which  uo  man  can  fore 
cast. 

Hear  him  again,  as  he  declares  to  a  vast  multitude  at  his  own 
home,  in  rapid,  beautiful  utterance,  his  admiration  for  the  Ameri 
can  system  of  government : 


UNIVERSITY' 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.    It'ELLlSOUX,  OF 

My  countrymen,  have  you  ever  studied  this  wonderful  American  syst 
free  government  ?  Have  you  compared  it  with  former  systems  and  noted  how 
our  fathers  sought  to  avoid  their  defects?  Let  me  commend  this  study  to 
every  American  citizen  to-day.  To  him  who  loves  liberty  it  is  more  enchant 
ing  than  romance,  more  bewitching  than  love,  and  more  elevating  than  any 
other  science.  Onr  fathers  adopted  this  plan  with  improvements  in  the  de 
tails  which  cannot  he  found  in  any  other  system.  With  what  a  noble  im 
pulse  of  patriotism  they  came  together  from  different  States  and  joined  their 
counsels  to  perfect  this  system,  thenceforward  to  be  known  as  the  "  Ameri 
can  system  of  free  constitutional  government."  The  snows  that  fall  on 
Mount  Washington  are  not  purer  than  the  motives  which  begot  it.  The  fresh 
dew-laden  zephyrs  from  the  orange  groves  of  the  South  are  not  sweeter  than 
the  hopes  its  advent  inspired.  The  flight  of  our  own  symbolic  eagle,  though 
he  blow  his  breath  011  the  sun,  cannot  be  higher  than  its  expected  destiny. 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  voice  of  patriotism  calls  to  us  to-day  from  the 
grave  of  the  great  Georgian.  In  silence  more  eloquent  than 
stirring  language  it  points  us  to  the  "  American  system  of  free  con 
stitutional  government"  as  the  "noblest  government,  the  greatest 
government  that  human  wisdom  ever  devised."  It  impresses 
upon  us  that  this  system  is  the  one  founded  by  Washington  and 
other  patriots  of  the  Revolution;  that  it  is  hallowed  by  sacred 
memories  and  freighted  with  precious  hopes;  that  though  the  right 
ful  inheritance  of  one  people,  humanity  everywhere  has  an  interest 
in  its  preservation ;  that,  if  in  an  evil  hour  it  should  perish,  its 
ruins  would  entomb  forever  the  institutions  of  freedom  and  give  a 
new  birth  to  the  establishments  of  despotism. 

By  all  these  high  considerations  it  pleads  for  the  perpetuation  of 
this  incomparable  system  of  government,  "  this  government  with 
out  a  mt)del,  this  government  without  a  prototype,"  and  points 
out  the  path  of  public  duty  by  urging  as  the  measure  of  public 
worth  "that  he. shall  be  the  greatest  patriot,  the  truest  patriot,  the 
noblest  patriot,  who  shall  do  most  to  repair  the  wrongs  of  the  past 
and  promote  the  glories  of  the  future." 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  touching  scenes  and  incidents  of  Mr.  HILJ/S 
last  sickness  were  a  fitting  close  to  the  illustrious  labors  of  his 
active  life.  The  intellect,  the  resolution,  the  courage,  the  fortitude 
which  had  sustained  him  in  the  latter  did  not  desert  him  in  the 
former.  But,  added  to  these,  was  a  fuller  reliance  than  ever  on 
that  unseen  arm  which  alone  can  guide  through  the  dark  valley 
and  shadow  of  death.  So  composedly  did  he  contemplate  his  near 
6  II 


82  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

dissolution  that  lie  was  able  to  say,  "But  for  the  good  I  had  hoped 
to  do  my  family  aud  country,  I  should  regard  the  announcement 
'I  must  die'  as  joyful  tidings." 

Above  all,  how  entrancing  the  vision  it  was  granted  him  to  see 
iust  before  death  took  him  away,  and  which  he  pictured  so  aptly 
in  the  last  two  words  he  ever  spoke,  "Almost  home!"  Home! 
A  magic  word.  The  English  language  has  no  brighter,  the  En 
glish  tongue  can  speak  no  sweeter.  It  names  the  best  spot  on  earth, 
the  radiant  center  of  pure  sentiments  and  heaven-approved  attach 
ments.  Thitherward  the  wanderer  in  distant  lands  ever  turns  his 
eye  in  bright  expectancy ;  and  when  he  has  been  long  and  far  away 
and  at  last  nears  the  loved  place,  and  familiar  objects  begin  to  glad 
den  his  eye,  the  tired  limbs  may  almost  give  out,  but  the  hope- 
buoyed  spirit  exclaims,  "Almost  home!" 

The  end  was  at  hand.  The  wanderings  of  time  were  over. 
Eternity's  glories  were  breaking  around.  The  dying  Senator 
"spoke  out  in  full  and  even  triumphant  accent,"  "Almost  home!" 
The  pulse  throbbed  its  last  beat,  and  the  spirit  flew  to  its  God  and 
immortal  destiny. 


Address  of  Mr.  KASSON,  of  Iowa. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  I  deeply  regret  that,  contrary  to  well-ordered 
custom,  I  am  obliged  to  speak  to-day  touching  the  honored  dead 
without  the  preparation  which  properly  characteri/es  such  an  occa 
sion.  I  learn  to-day  that  those  of  my  colleagues  on  this  side  of  the 
House  who,  from  old  association  with  Mr.  HILL,  late  Senator,  were 
best  fitted  to  speak  of  his  character  and  to  make  just  appreciation  of 
those  qualities  which  attracted  the  attention  of  the  whole  country, 
were  by  illness  and  other  special  cause  prevented  from  taking  part 
in  the  ceremonies  of  this  day. 

Unwilling  that  this  side  of  the  House,  which  had  also  been  a  wit 
ness  of  the  distinguished  ability  of  Senator  HILL  while  he  was  a 
member  of  this  body,  should  be  unheard  on  this  occasion,  I  vent 
ure  to  trespass  on  the  kindness  of  my  colleagues  while  I  say  ex 
temporaneously  a  few  words  upon  his  character  and  his  services. 


ADDEBSS  Of  MB.  KASSON,  OF  IOWA.  85 

We  from  the  States  of  the  North  had  only  that  opportunity  to 
become  acquainted  with  Mr.  HILL  which  was  offered  by  his  com 
paratively  brief  public  career  upon  this  floor.  Some  of  us,  includ 
ing  myself,  were  on  the  floor  at  the  time  of  that  great  debate  to 
which  so  frequent  reference  has  been  made  by  my  colleagues  upon 
the  other  side.  Few  men  had  a  higher  appreciation  of  the  intel 
lectual  qualities  developed  by  Mr.  HILL  in  that  discussion  than 
myself.  'My  sympathy  with  the  views  which  he  combated  could 
not  blind  me  to  his  power  in  debate. 

I  am  obliged  to  speak  of  his  qualities  chiefly  from  my  memory 
of  that  session,  and  especially  of  that  occasion.  There  were  in  him 
certain  traits  of  character  which  have  led  me  to  compare  him  with 
Oliver  Cromwell  among  persons  of  English  history,  and  with  but 
few  known  to  American  history.  He  combined  great  self-poise 
and  apparent  consciousness  of  power  with  a  certain  solid,  adaman 
tine  honesty  of  purpose  which  gave  to  the  movements  of  his  in 
tellect  unusual,  extraordinary  strength.  Earnest  in  countenance, 
he  expressed  in  that  respect  only  the  earnestness  of  his  nature. 
He  moved  with  solidity  in  the  development  of  his  intellectual 
forces.  He  could  not  be  cast  off  his  balance  by  any  light  attack 
whatever.  He  kept  the  main  objection  point  always  in  view.  His 
mind,  like  Cromwell's,  was  impregnated  with  a  sense  of  the  obliga 
tions  of  religion.  No  man  can  be  a  great  power  in  a  Christian 
country  without  this  inward  sense  of  responsibility  to  a  greater 
Power,  a  Power  greater,  higher  than  the  people,  and  to  whom  the 
people  themselves  owe  allegiance  and  acknowledge  responsibility. 
It  is  the  strong  rock  in  human  character  to  which,  above  all  other 
qualities,  the  people  themselves  attach  their  confidence. 

While  I  recognize  these  great  controliug  elements  of  the  human 
mind  in  him,  I  did  not  fail  to  see  that  he,  like  most  of  us,  was  still 
animated  chiefly  by  his  great  sense  of  responsibility  to  that  part  of 
the  country  which  he  represented.  I  recognized  that  same  hon 
esty  of  character  when  he  determined  that  the  sentiments  of  those 
who  elected  him  should  be  also  fairly  manifested  on  this  floor,  and 
should  be  maintained  by  all  the  force  of  debate. 

And  while  from  our  point  of  view  we  often  thought  we  dis 
covered  in  him  a  strength  of  prejudice  which  was  ineradicable,  we 


84  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

also  were  obliged  to  remember  that  our  opponents,  bearing  the  same 
relations  to  us  as  we  to  him,  would  find  for  the  same  reason,  for 
.identically  the  same  cause,  ground  to  believe  that  our  views  also 
were  influenced  or  controlled  by  prejudice  of  section  and  of  associ 
ation. 

Sir,  I  cannot  speak  of  Mr.  HILL'S  character  prior  to  his  entrance 
into  the  Forty-fourth  Congress.  We  knew  him  to  be  a  man  of 
power.  We  in  the  North  rejoiced  when  we  heard  that  his  voice  was 
lifted  to  save  us  from  the  disasters  that  followed  the  opening  era  of 
secession.  We  mourned  when  we  found  that  naturally,  if  not  log 
ically — for  we  appreciated  that  it  was  natural — he  cast  in  his  lot 
with  his  own  State  for  disunion  and  separate  government.  But  we 
rejoiced  again  when  at  the  close  of  that  great  struggle,  as  shown  by 
the  gentleman  from  Georgia  who  first  spoke  to-day  [Mr.  Hammond], 
he  again  presented  himself  in  the  front  of  that  column  which  sought 
to  return  to  the  Union  with  honesty  of  purpose,  with  perfect  in 
tegrity  of  heart,  and  with  an  earnest  desire  to  do  their  duty  to  the 
whole  country  as  faithfully  as  they  had  done  it  to  their  own  sec 
tion.  I  prefer  to  remember  Mr.  HILL  from  such  utterances  in  that 
speech  to  which  reference  has  been  made  as  this : 

We  had  well  hoped  that  the  country  had  suffered  long  enough  from  feuds, 
from  strife,  and  from  inflamed  passions;  and  we  came  here,  sir,  with  the  patri 
otic  purpose  to  remember  nothing  but  the  country  and  the  whole  country, 
and,  turning  onr  backs  on  the  horrors  of  the  past,  to  look  with  all  earnestness 
to  find  glories  for  the  future. 

When  a  man  like  Mr.  HILL  returns  to  what  we  may  fairly  call 
his  first  love  and  his  first  devotion,  it  means  more  than  the  flippant 
remark  of  one  who  desires  to  turn  a  phrase  in  oratory.  He  was 
of  that  rugged  honesty  of  nature  that,  wrhether  or  not  wholly  justi 
fied  by  an  impartial  judgment  in  the  course  he  took  upon  any  ques 
tion,  he  never  failed  to  impress  his  audience  with  the  certainty  and 
honesty  of  his  conviction  and  of  the  opinion  he  professed  to  en 
tertain.  I  mourn  when  such  a  man  passes  from  the  midst  of  us. 
I  regret  deeply  that  the  Senate  will  no  longer  hear  his  voice  nor 
have  the  benefit  of  his  sound  judgment. 

Sir,  among  the  many  sorrows  which  death  inflicts  upon  the  human 
breast  it  carries  with  it  one  blessing.  It  is  the  disposition  which 
then  comes  to  us  all  to  give  to  charity  and  justice  their  due  dominion 


ADDRESS  OF   MR.  HOOKER,   OF  MISSISSIPPI.  85 

over  intellect  and  heart  as  we  stand  by  the  grave  of  the  dead. 
Would  to  God  that  while  all  are  alive  we  could  equally  feel  and 
exercise  those  qualities  in  regard  to  our  associates,  whether  oppo 
nents  or  friends. 

I  take  to  myself,  I  think  we  can  all  take  to  ourselves,  from  the 
comments  made  upon  such  a  character  as  Mr.  HILL'S,  the  thought 
how  much  more  profitably,  how  much  more  agreeably,  more  pa 
triotically  our  duties  on  this  floor  would  be  discharged  if  we  could 
carry  from  his  grave  to  our  work  here  the  sentiments  with  which 
we  all  find  ourselves  inspired  as  we  look  into  the  face  of  the  dead. 
No  higher  tribute  to  the  character  which  we  now  commemorate 
could  be  given  than  that  each  of  us  should  attempt  to  exercise  in 
all  our  relations  those  virtues  which  we  here  celebrate  as  the  en 
nobling  qualities  of  him  to  whose  memory  we  this  day  render  the 
final  honors. 


Address  of  Mr.  HOOKER,  of  Mississippi. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  Having  been  invited  by  my  friend  from  Georgia 
[Mr.  Hammond],  who  sits  beside  me,  to  say  something  on  this 
occasion,  I  have  felt  it  my  duty  to  accept  that  invitation,  because 
of  the  relations  which  have  existed  between  the  people  of  my  own 
State  and  the  great  State  of  Georgia,  to  whose  distinguished  Sena 
tor  we  have  assembled  here  to-day  to  pay  the  last  solemn  obse 
quies;  for  while  the  daughter  has  somewhat  outgrown  the  mother 
in  many  respects,  she  has  not  ceased  to  feel  filial  affection  for  that 
great  country  which  supplied  so  many  of  her  early  citizens.  As 
it  is  not  my  custom  to  write  speeches  on  any  occasion,  I  am  con 
strained  to  speak  to-day,  so  far  as  affection  for  the  dead  is  con 
cerned,  rather  from  the  heart  than  from  the  head. 

With  reference  to  the  private  life  of  the  great  statesman  whose 
death  we  mourn,  I  can  say  but  little  except  what  I  gather  from 
the  friends  who  lived  closer  to-him  than  it  was  my  fortune  to  do. 
But  in  regard  to  his  public  character,  and  the  two  aspects  in  which 
it  presents  itself  to  the  world  at  large,  I  will  say  a  few  words. 

BENJAMIX  H.  HILL  underwent  as  a  part  of  his  education  the 


86  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

severe  training  of  a  lawyer.  It  was  in  this  aspect  that  he  first 
presented  himself  to  the  people  of  his  own  State.  His  mind  was 
formed  by  that  vigorous  discipline  which  belongs  to  the  profession 
of  the  law.  It  made  him  logical.  He  is  said  to  have  excelled 
especially  in  that  great  power  of  the  lawyer,  the  statement  of  his 
case.  This  he  made  so  simply,  so  briefly,  so  lucidly,  that  the  most 
unintelligent  court  must  seize  the  salient  facts  of  the  case.  It  was 
in  his  capacity  as  a  lawyer  that  Mr.  HILL  was  first  known  to  the 
people  of  his  own  State  for  his  distinguished  ability  as  a  reasoner 
and  an  orator.  I  have  heard  from  a  friend  of  his  an  incident  of 
his  early  life,  when  he  was  employed  to  defend  a  man  charged 
with  murder.  That  defense  was  assumed  by  him  in  the  courts, 
and  he  failed. 

At  that  time  in  the  State  of  Georgia  it  was  within  the  power  of 
the  defendant  in  a  case  of  this  kind  to  appeal  to  the  senate  of  the 
State.  Mr.  HILL  made  that  appeal,  not  so  much  in  behalf  of  the 
defendant  himself  as  of  the  aged  and  widowed  mother,  from  whose 
heart  he  wished  to  avert  the  blow  which  would  fall  upon  the  head 
of  her  son.  He  went  into  the  State  senate  with  his  case,  with  a 
widowed  mother  leaning  on  his  arm. 

This  gentleman  describes  the  scene  as  he  witnessed  it — one  in 
which  Mr.  HILL  looked,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  pallid  with 
excitement,  because  -of  the  great  responsibility  which  rested  upon 
him;  for  in  all  his  advocacy  at  the  bar  he  was  impressed  with  the 
sentiment  of  the  great  responsibility  resting  upon  the  advocate  and 
the  intimate  relation,  between  the  advocate  and  his  client,  a  senti 
ment  which  has  been  beautifully,  though  perhaps  somewhat  too 
strongly,  expressed  by  one  of  the  greatest  of  English  lawyers  and 
English  premiers,  Lord  Brougham,  when  he  declared  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  a  lawyer  to  stand  by  the  interest  of  his  client  even  to  the 
upturning  of  the  government.  Mr.  HILL  walked  into  that  senate 
chamber  and  made  his  appeal  to  the  senate  on  the  ground  of  the 
insanity  of  the  man  who  had  committed  the  alleged  murder.  He 
spoke  for  hours,  and  he  obtained  from  the  senate  a  verdict  which 
relieved  the  widowed  mother  and  spared  the  life  of  the  son. 

In  all  his  relations  as  a  lawyer  Mr.  HILL  achieved  distinction 
because  he  was  inspired  with  fidelity  to  the  great  duties  which 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HOOKER,  OF  MISSISSIPPI.  87 

devolved  upon  him.  But  his  great  intellect  was  not  destined  to 
be  confined  in  its  exercise  to  the  bar,  though  it  was  the  shaping 
and  the  fashioning  of  that  intellect  by  close  attention  to  his  profes 
sion  that  prepared  him  for  a  new  and  different  arena.  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  first  meeting  him  here  as  we  entered  together  the  Forty- 
fourth  Congress.  He  leaped  into  this  grand  arena  of  debate  like 
Minerva  from  the  brain  of  Jove,  armed  [cap-a-pie  for  any  contest 
that  might  occur.  He  was  prepared  to  take  rank  among  the  first 
in  this  hall  of  debate  of  the  American  Commons. 

I  remember  especially  an  occasion  a  short  time  after  the  con 
vening  of  the  Forty-fourth  Congress  when  he  spoke  here  almost 
from  the  position  in  which  I  now  stand.  The  magnanimous,  gen 
erous-hearted  Representative  from  Pennsylvania  [Mr.  Randall], 
then  the  leader  of  this  side  of  the  House,  had  introduced  his  bill 
for  universal  amnesty,  thinking  that  the  time  had  come  when  there 
should  be  a  restoration  of  the  Union,  not  in  name  and  word,  but 
in  deed  and  in  truth;  that  amnesty  should  be  extended  to  every 
citizen,  from  the  humblest  subaltern  animated  by  a  sense  of  duty  to 
the  lofty-plumed  chief  who  led  the  Confederate  forces ;  that  all  the 
memories  of  the  war  should  be  blotted  from  the  hearts  and  the 
minds  of  the  entire  people. 

In  this  spirit  the  gentleman  from  Pennsylvania  introduced  that 
resolution  upon  which  Mr.  HILL'S  voice  was  first  heard  in  this 
Hall,  as  has  been  so  beautifully  described  by  my  friend  from  Vir 
ginia  [Mr.  Tucker].  He  encountered  on  that  occasion  an  orator  on 
the  other  side  of  the  Chamber  who  had  been  for  years  the  leader 
of  his  party,  who  had  at  one  time  occupied  the  seat  which  you  now 
occupy,  who,  as  a  debater,  as  a  stater  of  facts^  as  a  parliamentary 
tactician,  had  probably  no  equal  at  that  time  on  either  side  of  this 
Hall. 

It  was  a  conflict,  as  the  gentleman  from  Virginia  [Mr.  Tucker] 
has  well  remarked,  of  giants,  which  took  us  back  to  the  older  days 
in  these  halls,  when  Hayne  and  Webster  and  Calhoun  and  Clay 
and  other  orators  of  the  past  rendered  illustrious  the  days  in  which 
they  lived.  As  has  been  well  said,  it  was  a  battle  of  the  giants, 
and  both  giants  fought  with  Damascus-like  blades. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  it  was  a  somewhat  unequal  con  test,  for  he'who 


88  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

represented  one  side  of  the  question  was  the  victor  and  wore  the 
laurel  wreath  which  crowns  the  victor's  brow,  while  the  other  rep 
resented  what  has  become  known  in  history  as  the  "  lost  cause,"  and 
wore  the  melancholy  cypress,  which  is  the  emblem  of  defeat  and 
death.  Therefore  I  say  it  was  a  somewhat  unequal  contest;  but 
those  of  us  for  whom  he  spoke,  and  spoke  with  so  much  clearness, 
so  much  precision,  so  much  wisdom,  so  much  patriotism,  felt  that 
we  could  appeal  to  the  magnanimity  of  his  great  opponent ;  great 
he  was  and  still  is — we  felt  that  we  could  appeal  to  the  magna 
nimity  of  his  great  opponent  in  that  contest  that  Mr.  HILL  had 
stated  his  side  of  the  question  as  no  other  man  could  have  stated  it 
in  this  Hall. 

During  the  time  he  was  here  as  our  colleague  we  all  remember 
him  with  the  tenderest  affection  and  esteem.  We  venerate  his  great 

o 

ability.  We  deplore  his  loss  to  the  State  who  called  him  son,  and 
to  the  country  who  honored  him  for  his  patriotism  and  fidelity. 

It  was  not  long,  Mr.  Speaker,  before  the  people  of  his  State,  in 
1877,  called  on  him  to  occupy  a  higher  position.  I  remember  his 
being  seated  in  that  portion  of  the  Hall  from  which  he  had  de 
livered  his  powerful  and  eloquent  speech  a  few  minutes  before,  and 
receiving  a  telegram  conveying  to  him  the  intelligence  that  the  State 
of  Georgia  had  transferred  him  to  the  other  end  of  the  Capitol. 

He  went  there,  Mr.  Speaker,  as  he  came  here,  and  at  once  took 
his  rank  in  that  graver,  more  dignified  body,  that  body  of  loftier 
debate,  took  his  seat  there  when  that  Chamber  was  filled  with  men 
of  the  highest  intellect  in  this  country,  when  the  gigantic  intellectual 
form  of  Thurman  sat  on  one  side  and  on  the  other  the  equally  gi 
gantic  intellectual  form  of  Colliding.  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL  took 
his  place  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  as  he  had  done  in  this 
Hall,  as  the  peer  and  equal  of  any  man  there.  He  had  achieved 
great  triumph  in  every  position  of  life,  as  lawyer,  as  Representative, 
as  Senator.  He  had  strewed  along  the  pathway  of  that  life  mem 
orable  acts  and  wondrous  intellectual  efforts,  "as  the  giant  oak  of  the 
forest  sheds  its  foliage  in  a  kindly  largess  to  the  soil  it  grows  on." 
He  has  passed  from  us  to  another  scene  of  action.  He  has  passed 
from  us  to  that  "home"  to  which  he  looked  so  fondly. 

Whether  speaking  to  his  people  in  the  State  of  Georgia,  or  ad- 


ADDRESS  OF  MB.  HOOKEE,  OF  MISSISSIPPI.  89 

dressing  the  Representatives  in  this  Hall  on  the  most  delicate  ques 
tions,  or  debating  in  the  Senate  Chamber  of  the  United  States, 
there  never  fell  from  his  lips  any  other  words  than  words  of  wis 
dom  and  patriotism.  His  were — 

"Not  such  words  as  flash 

From  tlie  fierce  demagogue's  unthinking  rage 
To  madden  for  a  moment  an'd  expire — 
Nor  such  as  the  rapt  orator  imbues 
With  warmth  of  facile  sympathy,  and  molds 
To  mirrors  radiant  with  fair  images, 
To  grace  the  noble  fervor  of  an  hour  ; 
But  words  which  bear  the  spirits  of  great  deeds 
Wiug'd  for  the  future  ;  which  the  dying  breath 
Of  Freedom's  martyr  shapes  as  it  exhales, 
And  to  tbo  most  enduring  forms  of  earth 
Commits — to  linger  in  the  craggy  shade 
Of  the  huge  valley,  'neath  the  eagle's  home, 
Or  in  the  sea-cave  where  the  tempest  sleeps, 
Till  some  heroic  leader  bid  them  wake 
To  thrill  the  world  with  echoes." 

Wherever  he  spoke  and  whatever  lie  said,  all  was  for  his  coun 
try's  good.  He  rose  superior  to  all  partisanship  because  he  was  a 
statesman,  looking  always  to  the  best  interests  of  his  people. 

It  has  been  said  when  every  other  passion  which  sways  the 
human  heart  has  been  burned  to  ashes  on  its  altar,  ambition  still 
lives  and  rules  and  controls.  But  he  had  lived  even  until  this 
last  passion  had  died  out,  and  the  last  hours  of  his  life  touched 
scenes  in  his  mortal  illness  when  he  was  ministered  to  by  his  lov 
ing  wife  and  equally  loving  daughter,  which  enabled  him  to 
throw  aside  every  passion  and  every  emotion  which  rule  the  hu 
man  heart,  and  look  forward  with  that  feeling  of  hope  which  be 
longs  to  the  pure  Christian  man. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  one  of  his  brother  members  of  the  bar 
(Mr.  John  W.  Clampitt)  of  a  distant  State,  the  State  of  my  friend 
from  Illinois  [Mr.  Springer],  sent  him  that  beautiful  poem  de 
scribing  the  very  condition  of  mind  in  which  Mr.  HILL  then  was. 
It  reached  him  only  a  few  days  before  his  death.  That  gentle 
man  is  now  a  member  of  the  bar  of  this  city.  I  will  read  a  few 
stan/as  from  that  pathetic  poem  addressed  to  Senator  B,  H.  HILL, 
and  beginning  with — 


90  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

I  am  weary  of  iny  burcleii 
And  fain  would  rest. 

Every  leaf  upon  its  shore  lines 

Is  a  gem ; 

Not  a  withered  one  is  drooping, 
While  the  hand  of  love  is  looping 
And  into  garlands  grouping 

All  of  them. 

In  that  world  there  is  no  sorrow, 

Not  a  tear ; 

Never  comes  the  broken-hearted, 
From  whose  eager  life  departed 
The  hopes  that  once  had  started 

Fond  and  dear. 

Not  a  storm-cloud  ever  gathers 

On  the  air ; 

Only  summer  clouds  are  drifting, 
And  summer  breezes  sifting, 
And  sweetest  perfume  lifting 

From  gardens  fair. 

Only  music  soft  and  melting 

Soothes  the  soul ; 
And  its  billows  mild  and  wooing, 
With  a  gentle  hand  undoing 
All  the  cares  that  were  bestrewing 

Each  earthly  goal. 

Lead  me  to  that  land  of  beauty, 

So  I  may  abide  ; 

Lead  me  where  the  flowers  are  blooming, 
Where  the  music  mild  is  wooing, 
Where  the  hand  of  love  is  moving 

On  every  tide. 

Like  a  little  child  I'll  follow 

Swift  after  thee ; 
To  the  land  of  never  weeping, 
Where  my  father's  love  is  keeping 
Mortal  souls  who  failed  in  reaping 

Earthly  ecstasy. 

1  will  take  my  burden  for  a  pillow 

And  lie  down  to  rest ; 
God's  love  shall  dwell  beside  me, 
And  no  clouds  shall  ever  hide  me 
From  the  loving  ones  that  guide  me 

To  the  portals  of  the  bleat. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  COX,  OF  NEW  YORK.  91 

These  lines  fitly  and  appropriately  describe  the  closing  scenes  of 
that  memorable  life,  which  had  been  so  distinguished  in  the  great 
events  of  this  country.  It  may  be  said  of  him,  Mr.  Speaker,  as 
was  said  by  the  great  Marshall  of  his  friend  Menafee,  when  he 
was  describing  him  after  death  : 

His  escutcheon  is  broad,  spotless,  bright,  and  beautiful  as  Bayard's  ori- 
llanime  adorned  with  the  lilies  of  France. 

Senator  HILL  died,  Mr.  Speaker,  in  the  meridian  of  his  life,  of 
that  singular,  fatal,  and  insidious  disease  that  up  to  this  time  has 
defied  the  eye  of  the  scientist  to  determine  how  it  originates  or 
how  it  may  be  relieved.  He  passed  away  before  he  had  attained 
that  lofty  eminence  that  the  future  had  evidently  in  store  for  him. 
But  in  that  dying  hour,  looking  back  over  the  great  events  in  the 
history  of  his  country  in  which  lie  had  borne  so  prominent  a  part, 
he  might  well  have  been  justified  if  at  its  conclusion  the  power  of 
speech  had  been  restored  to  him,  in  saying  in  the  language  of  the 
great  Latin  poet  as  he  contemplated  his  mighty  epic : 

Jamquc  opus  cxegi,  quod  nee  Jovis  ira,  uec  ignis,  uec  vetustiim  ferruiu 
poterit  delere. 


Address  of  Mr.  Cox,  of  New  York. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  When  a  great  French  leader  of  opinion  died  the 
other  day,  it  was  queried  whether  French  institutions  would  sur 
vive.  "  The  republic  is  Leon  Gambetta,"  was  the  sententious 
phrase.  Wherever  the  signs  of  sorrow  were  displayed  over  the 
death  of  the  great x  Frenchman,  from  San  Francisco  to  Syria,  the 
powerful  tribune  of  the  people,  the  vehement  orator,  the  energetic 
patriot  was  mourned  as  if  France  herself  were  lost.  The  very  floral 
offerings  were  shaped  into  the  tricolor  of  France.  Not  so  in  other 
lands.  Disraeli  dies,  and  though  his  party  goes  on,  sadly  lacking 
his  genius,  the  English  Government  in  form  and  structure  receives 
no  detriment.  I  saw  nobles  of  ancient  lineage  and  peasants  of  the 
country  he  had  so  long  represented  follow  his  remains  to  its  sepul- 
cher.  All  that  wras  mortal  of  the  dead  Hebrew  and  brilliant 


92  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BEXJAMlN  H.  HILL. 

minister  received  the  last  rites  of  the  established  church,  but  the 
English  constitution  and  English  society  received  no  shock. 

So,  too,  in  these  cisatlantic  republican  commonwealths — states 
men  and  Presidents  come  and  go  like  rainbows,  but  the  state  sur 
vives.  It  is  more  permanent  because  of  the  monumental  service 
of  the  departed  statesman  it  has  nourished. 

The  eloquent  Georgian  and  Senator  whom  we  honor  to-day 
rounded  an  active  life  of  rarest  mold.  No  glamour  of  the  sol 
dier  was  his.  He  was  the  peerless  citizen  who  led  men  by  voice 
and  thought  in  perilous  times,  through  troubles  and  tyrannies, 
with  a  foresight  and  wisdom  all  too  rare  in  this  land  of  mercenary 
grasping  and  unrelaxing  excitement.  He  dies  ;  but  his  State  and 
the  nation  grow  better  by  the  emphasis  of  his  life  and  the  virtue 
of  its  lessons. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  know  Senator  HILL,  even  before  he  be 
came  a  member  here.  It  is  because  of  delightful,  almost  intimate 
friendship,  that  his  friends  have  assigned  to  me  a  part  in  these  sad 
obsequies. 

The  dates  and  events,  the  links  connecting  such  details,  which 
make  the  chain  of  his  personal  history  and  serve  to  illustrate  the 
individual  feeling  and  life,  the  character  of  the  man — these  others 
have  touched  with  magnetic,  loving  hand. 

This  chain  was  fashioned  as  all  character  is  by  surrounding  cir 
cumstances.  Those  who  knew  him  in  his  early  days  love  to  trace 
the  main  elements  of  his  character  to  his  parentage.  His  father 
was  of  slender  education,  but  of  robust  virtue.  He  was  remark 
able  for  his  invincible  will  and  force.  His  mother  was  of  an 
earnest,  gentle  nature,  full  of  reflective  and  religious  qualities. 
These  made  up  the  rudiments  of  that  character  which  enabled  him 
to  overcome  obstacles  by  endurance  and  palliate  them  by  persua 
sion.  The  sturdy  oak  was  garlanded  with  tenderest  flowers. 
Like  a  Grecian  or  Doric  fane,  to  which  the  gentleman  from  Vir 
ginia  [Mr.  Tucker]  likened  it,  his  character  combined  beauty  with 
strength. 

The  old  farm-house  and  the  red  hills  where  he  passed  the  scenes 
of  his  boyhood  modified  these  inborn  elements  of  his  nature,  and 
gave  fresh  vigor  to  his  healthful  Hie  and  added  grace  to  his  geu- 
tleuesss. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  COX,  OF  NKW  YORK.  93 

Iii  his  college  experience  the  development  and  discipline  of  his 
mind  was  prodigious.  His  shyness  and  awkwardness,  born  of  the 
country,  soon  gave  way  before  his  energy  and  ambition.  From 
the  rustic  boy,  in  his  long  jeans  coat  and  scant  trousers,  he  at  once 
became  a  thoughtful  student,  His  habit  of  abstraction  began 
thus  early.  Whether  in  the  Demosthenian  Society,  or  as  its  anni- 
versarian  orator,  or  delivering  the  valedictory  of  his  class,  he  im 
pressed  those  who  listened  with  his  unequaled  power  of  debate 
and  the  rare  felicity  of  his  eloquence.  One  index  of  the  gentle 
side  of  his  character  may  be  noted.  His  theme  at  the  junior  com 
mencement  was  the  "  Life,  Love,  and  Madness  of  Torquato 
Tasso,"  into  which  he  threw  all  his  mother's  poetic  sensibility 
with  his  scholarly  warmth. 

Soon  the  scholar  ripened  into  the  advocate.  Here  was  his 
field.  He  had  a  legal  mind.  He  drove  the  ..logic  of  the  law 
bravely  through  every  obstacle  of  fancy  and  fact.  His  fluency  of 
speech  and  fertility  of  expedient,  together  with  his  power  of  appli 
cation  and  study,  gave  him  a  forensic  power  which  Lord  Coke 
said  a  ffood  lawver  should  have  for  the  "occasion  sudden;"  a 

V 

power  which  partial  friends  have  compared  with  that  of  Erskine. 
As  a  lawyer  few  men,  even  in  our  largest  cities,  have  had  such 
success.  Although  diverted  again  and  again  from  his  jealous 
mistress,  the  law,  to  canvass  for  Congress,  legislature,  elector,  and 
governor,  he  was  still  employed  in  all  the  leading  cases  of  the 
State.  It  is  estimated — if  such  estimates  may  be  quoted  here  and 
now — that  he  had  made  a  million  dollars,  as  fees,  by  the  time  he 
was  fifty.  He  was  as  lavish  in  the  expenditure  and  as  improvi 
dent  in  the  investment  of  his  earnings  as  he  was  indefatigable 
with  head  and  voice  in  their  accumulation. 

There  is  another  phase  of  his  life  which  gave  its  impress  to  the 
scholar,  the  citizen,  the  orator,  the  advocate,  the  statesman,  and 
the  man.  It  is  the  sectional  or  Southern  aspect  of  his  life. 
Without  this  phase  he  wrould  not  have  made  the  mark  which  he 
so  indelibly  did  upon  his  State.  He  had  no  act  of  the  dema 
gogue,  no  party  tactics  at  command,  no  storied  lore  racy  of  the 
soil  such  as  made  the  "  Georgia  Scenes  "  so  whimsical  and  humor 
ous,  and  little  or  no  conversational  loquacity  ;  but  he  had  the  re 
serve  which  carries  the  battle,  and  thus  armed  he  was  dauntless. 


94  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

Yet  there  seems  to  be  an  unevenness  aiid  inconsistency  in  his 
career  and  character.  This  unevenness  may  have  been  the  result 
of  the  vicissitudes  of  the  eventful  times  when  the  best  of  men  were 
distracted  as  to  duty.  Inconsistency  ?  Gladstone,  the  young 
Tory,  becomes  the  venerable  Liberal,  and  Palmerston  laughed  at 
the  vanity  of  consistency. 

Call  it  what  you  will,  State  pride  or  local  affection,  and  say  it 
is  irreconcilable  with  a  larger  love  of  country,  yet  is  it  not  the 
same  patriotic  impulse  which  made  Tell  love  the  mountains  of 
Switzerland,  and  Webster  the  rock-bound  shores  of  New  Eng 
land  ?  Besides,  is  it  necessary  to  reconcile  the  love  one  bears  the 
mother  with  that  one  bears  the  wife  ?  When  one  is  true  to  his 
bridal  troth  is  he  less  true  to  the  mother  who  bore  him  ? 

It  was  this  State  pride  which  led  the  youth  to  prefer  his  own 
State  University,  at  Athens  for  his  education  rather  than  follow 
the  advice  of  his  teacher,  who  was  a  graduate  of  Yale.  It  was 
the  same  sentiment  which  colored  his  after-life  and  gave  glow  and 
glory  to  his  oratory.  Even  while  protesting  against  secession 
ordinances  on  the  hustings  and  in  convention  he  followed  with  no 
laggard  step  his  State  into  revolt  against  the  Federal  domination. 
When  the  question  came  home  to  him  whether 'he  would  have  the 
unity  of  his  Georgian  people  or  the  unity  of  a-11  the  States,  he 
chose,  and  honestly  chose,  the  unity  of  his  home. 

Herein  lies  that  seeming  unevenness  and  inconsistency  which 
some  have  observed  in  his  character.  I  shall  rather  call  it  the 
tough  fiber  of  his  native  robust  being,  its  nature  gnarled  by  soil 
and  tempest,  but  none  the  less  beautiful  because  it  had  the  hard 
intertwisted  knot  of  local  devotion. 

True,  he  contended  for  "the  Union,  the  Constitution,  and  the  en 
forcement  of  the  laws."  He  left  his  lawyer's  desk  and  sought  leg 
islative  honors,  to  champion  constitutional  Federal  unity.  It  was 
because  he  thought  the  mother  was  the  loving  friend  of  his  bride. 

The  first  test  of  the  young  statesman,  thirty  years  ago,  was  in 
the  contest  for  the  compromise  of  1850.  He  desired  to  signali/e 
the  end  of  slavery  agitation,  which  he  foresaw  would  end  in  civil 
war  and  Southern  disaster.  Hence  his  entrance  upon  political  life 
in  1851  as  a  Union  man. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  COX,  OF  NEW  YORK.  95 

Throughout  his  subsequent  life,  up  to  the  signing  of  the  seces 
sion  ordinance,  he  was,  in  its  best  sense,  an  ardent  Federalist.  He 
was  of  such  moderate  views  and  so  opposed  to  the  ultraists  of  his 
State  that  lie  traversed  Georgia  proclaiming  fealty  to  the  Union. 
He  sounded  the  tocsin  of  revolt  against  the  leaders  of  revolution. 
Never  was  a  crisis  met  so  courageously.  At  a  time  when  Yancey's 
sentences  thrilled  the  South,  and  when  even  Howell  Cobb  was  the 
coadjutor  of  Senator  Iverson,  the  silver  voice  of  BENJAMIN  H. 
HILL,  joining  that  of  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  was  a  trumpet,  not 
of  sedition,  but  of  loyalty  to  the  Union. 

In  his  speeches,  full  of  the  fervor  of  that  wild  day,  and  in  a 
minority,  he  was  to  Southern  Unionism  what  Gambetta  was  to  dis 
tracted  France.  Botli  were  too  late  to  save,  but  both  lived  to  re 
build  and  restore. 

It  is  not  for  me  to  inquire  why  the  late  Senator  gave  his  voice 
only  for  secession  and  not  his  arm.  It  was  not  from  lack  of  cour 
age,  physical,  mental,  or  moral;  but  he  was  doubtless  continually 
shadowed  by  his  own  prophecy.  "Take  care,"  he  said,  "that  in 
endeavoring  to  carry  slavery  where  nature's  laws  prohibit  its  en 
trance  you  do  not  lose  the  right  to  hold  slaves  at  all !  " 

The  Senator  had  no  love  for  the  secrecies  and  ritual  of  Know- 
nothiugism,  and  when  that  semi-religious  and  anti-American  cru 
sade  was  preached  it  was  condemned  by  him.  But  from  his  con 
servative  habitude  he  defended  the  Fillmore  administration,  and 
in  1860  he  became  a  Bell  and  Everett  Union  elector.  Georgia 
rang  from  side  to  side  with  his  elegant  and  urgent  phillipics  against 
radicalism  North  and  South  and  his  fervent  patriotism  for  the  Union 
of  our  fathers. 

It  is  impossible  to  analyze  a  life  so  full  of  incident  or  a  mind  so 
well  disciplined  and  an  oratory  so  alert  and  brilliant,  without  draw 
ing  upon  the  language  of  high  encomium. 

All  the  virtues  and  genius  as  wrell  as  faults  of  the  man  and  Sen 
ator  center  around  the  love  he  bore  to  his  own  State  of  Georgia. 

He  was  a  native  of  Georgia,  and  had  he  lived  till  now  would 
have  been  three-score  years  of  age.  He  was  born  in  the  center  of 
that  "old  red  belt  which  encircles  the  State  from  the  Savannah  to 


96  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

the  Chattahoochee."     To  borrow  the  language  of  a  friend  in  the 
days  of  my  first  service  here,  Judge  James  Jackson : 

He  was  all  a  Georgian.  The  robust  physique  of  the  man  sprang  from  the 
soil  of  our  beloved  State,  and  the  giant  intellect  which  so  distinguished  him 
was  equally  Georgian.  If  honey  was  upon  his  lips,  the  Georgia  bee  gathered 
it  from  Georgia  flowers.  If  the  silver  ring  of  his  eloquence  touched  all  hearts, 
the  silver  was  dug  out  of  the  red  old  hills  we  love  so  much. 

Georgia,  geologically  and  picturesquely,  under  and  above  the 
genial  soil,  has  natural  advantages  and  beauties  which  along  with 
her  liberal  institutions  early  attracted  such  adventurous  minds  as 
the  Hebrew  Mendez,  the  English  soldier  Oglethorpe,  and  the 
Methodist  Wesley.  Even  the  mounds  are  yet  pointed  out,  in  the 
county  where  our  Senator  was  born,  into  which  De  Soto  delved  for 
gold.  Her  mountains  dip  and  curl  in  crested  grandeur  toward  the 
west,  while  her  savannas  add  their  greenery  and  wealth  to  her 
shores. 

General  James  Oglethorpe,  who,  as  Burke  said,  had  called  a  prov 
ince  into  existence  and  lived  to  see  it  an  independent  State,  was 
the  epitome  of  Georgia  history.  Oglethorpe's  life  was  so  full  of 
achievement  and  variety  that  it  is  a  romance.  Pope  eulogized,  Dr. 
Johnson  admired,  and  Thompson  celebrated  him.  He  was  not  only 
ready  to  defend  his  honor  in  the  duel,  but  was  the  prisoner's  friend 
and  the  founder  of  an  "empire  State."  Sir  Kobert  Montgomery 
called  the  new  colony  which  the  gallant  general  founded  "the  most 
delightful  country  of  the  universe."  Even  the  poet  of  the  Seasons, 
Thompson,  in  his  "  Liberty,"  sang  of  the  swarming  colonists  who 
sought  the  "gay  colony  of  Georgia."  Pie  eulogized  it  as  the  calm 
retreat  of  undeserved  distress,  the  better  home  of  those  whom  bigots 
chased  from  foreign  lands.  '  It  was  not  built  on  rapine,  servitude, 
and  woe.  The  very  history  and  literature  of  England  thus  im- 
bound  with  this  colony  is  almost  unknown  to  the  North.  Other 
States,  it  seems,  attracted  more  literary  attention. 

It  was  this  Georgia,  the  asylum  and  hope  of  man,  and  founded 
in  honor,  religion,  and  bravery,  that  our  Senator  loved.  Even 
John  Wesley's  mother,  when  the  high  church  Methodist  asked  her 
whether  he  should  proceed  to  Georgia,  said  :  "  Had  I  twenty  sons 
I  should  rejoice  if  they  were  all  so  employed."  The  very  religion 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  COX,  OF  NEW  YORK.  97 

of  Georgia  had  in  it  a  courage  which  does  not  belong  to  our  time, 
when  the  voyage  across  the  Atlantic  is  robbed  of  most  of  its 
terror. 

In  the  center  and  heart  of  this  historic  State,  and  in  a  county 
which  bears  the  name  of  the  bravest  soldier  that  ever  bore  a  banner 
to  victory — -Jasper — and  with  the  heroic  and  religious  associations 
of  its  founders,  young  HILL  was  born.  At  an  early  age  he  followed 
his  family  and  its  fortunes  to  the  Alabama  border,  near  the  Chat- 
tahoochee  River.  The  town  of  La  Grange,  to  which  they  removed, 
is  the  county  seat  of  Troup.  It  was  then,  and  is  yet,  noted  for  its 
love  of  education  and  its  school  facilities.  There  are  many  asso 
ciations  in  this  county,  and  even  connected  with  its  very  name, 
which  might  well  attune  a  young  mind  to  thoughts  of  ambition  in 
the  forum  of  law  and  politics.  Giants  were  arrayed  in  Georgia  in 
those  days,  and  their  efforts,  especially  about  1833,  when  force  bills 
and  nullification  were  rife,  gave  impassioned  tone  as  well  as  high 
temper  to  political  discussion. 

Doubtless  the  mind  of  young  HILL  took  its  hue  from  these  sur 
roundings;  but  in  a  State  the  very  name  of  whose  counties  betoken 
a  lofty  division  of  sentiment — where  Washington,  Jackson,  Jeffer 
son,  Franklin,  and  Madison  speak  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and 
Henry,  Randolph,  Troup,  and  Crawford  speak  of  State  sovereignty 
and  local  liberty;  but  where,  above  all,  the  names  of  Pulaski,  DC 
Kalb,  Morgan,  and  Carroll  shine  like  primal  virtues,  all  starry 
with  our  Revolutionary  radiance,  it  could  not  be  otherwise  than 
that  men  of  earnest  thought  should  perceive  a  divided  duty,  and 
that  great  controversial  acumen  and  power  should  enter  the  arena 
and  inspire  contentious  oratory. 

Doubtless  Senator  HILL  was  greatly  influenced  in  his  pursuits 
and  characteristics  by  such  rare  men  and  events  as  Georgia  has 
produced.  These  names  may  not  be  as  familiar  to  Northern  ears 
now  as  in  the  days  of  Jackson  and  Calhoun,  but  they  are  still  po 
tential  to  start  a  spirit  in  Georgia,  where  State  pride  has  lost  but 
little  of  its  prestige  by  the  result  of  the  civil  war.  Read  the  roster 
of  Georgia's  forum — the  brilliant  lights  ot  her  bench,  bar,  litera 
ture,  and  senate :  Beall,  Crawford,  Berrien,  Mclntosh,  Clayton,  Col- 
quitt,  Cobb,  Tripp,  Dawson,  Forsythe,  Lumpkin,  Lamar,  Jackson, 
7  H 


98  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

Shorter,  Reid,  Warner,  Johnson,  Wilde,  and  Baldwin,  not  to  speak 
of  men  who  yet  survive,  like  her  present  wonderful  chief  magistrate, 
and  his  contrast  in  stature  and  mate  in  intellect,  Robert  Toombs. 

A  State  like  this,  so  grand  in  its  beginning  and  so  splendid  in  its 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  prosperous  history,  must  be  proud  of 
its  heroes,  whether  fit — 

For  arms  and  warlike  aruenaucc, 
Or  else  for  wise  ami  civil  governance, 
To  learn  the  interdcal  of  princes  strauge; 
To  mark  the  intent  of  councils,  and  the  change 
Of  states. 

Her  annals  are  shining  with  the  names  of  De  Soto,  Raleigh,  and 
Oglethorpe ;  and  the  names  of  their  successors  under  conditions  of 
later  days  detract  nothing  from  the  luster  of  their  worth  and 
renown. 

To  emulate  the  fame  of  Hortensius,  king  of  the  forum,  Cicero 
never  ceased  his  efforts  till  he  ascended  the  throne  of  oratory.  So 
in  this  unrivaled  galaxy  of  gifted  Georgians.  Emulation  made 
ambition  reach  high.  From  sire  to  sou  the  names  of  eminent 
Georgians  appear  again  and  again,  showing  the  elevating  incentives 
which  enlivened  and  exalted  this  imperial  State  of  the  South.  The 
gold  in  her  hills,  the  silver  on  the  cotton-pod,  the  sun  with  its 
balm,  the  rivers  which  flow  from  her  mountains,  the  opulence  of 
her  soil,  are  not  more  Georgian  and  imperial  than  the  high  standard 
of  those  who  gave  Georgia  to  the  world  as  a  colony,  preserved  her 
independence  of  England,  brought  her  through  fire  into  the  federa 
tion  of  States,  and  after  the  vicissitudes  of  a  great  civil  trial  rescued 
her  first  among  the  recusant  States  from  the  chaos  of  war. 

The  Senator  we  meet  to  honor  was  110  exception  to  the  emula 
tion  and  exaltation  of  his  surroundings.  His  natural  ardors  and 
ambitions  thus  received  their  stimulus  and  food.  But  the  mass 
ive  rnind  which  made  the  great  advocate  and  the  moral  heroism 
which  made  the  defender  of  individual  and  civil  liberties — these 
are  of  no  soil;  they  belong  to  no  time.  They  illustrate  the  age  of 
Aristides  and  give  a  glory  to  the  fame  of  Rienzi.  They  made 
Samuel  Adams  and  Patrick  Plenry  possible,  not  as  provincial  men, 
but  as  enlarged  and  loving  patriots. 


ADDRESS  OF  MB.  COX,  OF  XETT  YORE.  99 

He  who  would  best  portray  the  salient  features  of  BENJAMIN 
HARVEY  HILI,  must  remember  that  his  devotion  to  Georgia  was 
but  the  stepping-stone  to  a  broader  and  loftier  devotion  to  that 
Union  which  he  loved  to  serve  in  our  councils  here. 

The  people  of  New  York  City  have  not  yet  forgotten  the  ring 
ing  periods  of  Senator  HILT,,  in  one  of  her  halls,  as  he  discoursed 
of  the  magna  charta  and  other  precious  monuments  of  popular  lib 
erty.  To  his  impassioned  utterance  his  fine  frame  and  musical 
voice  gave  a  charm  beyond  the  reach  of  art. 

His  State  love  was,  sir,  after  all,  the  golden  key  which  unlocked 
the  secrets  of  his  grand  elocution  and  opened  the  casket  wherein 
were  the  jewels  of  his  splendid  imagery. 

When  the  war  had  ended,  and  his  State  was  in  the  grasp  of  un 
principled  adventurers  and  under  the  heel  of  an  unbridled  satrapy, 
and  in  the  chaos  Avrought  by  the  war,  he  gave  to  the  reconstruction 
acts  his  defiance,  and  hurled  his  anathemas  against  its  spoilers. 

In  1868  he  went  among  his  people  with  the  stride  of  a  demi-god. 
He  fired  their  hearts,  and  though  surrounded  by  bayonets  and 
threatened  by  bastiles,  he  uttered  such  sarcasm,  scorn,  and  daunt 
less  defiance  that  the  satraps  who  outraged  every  canon  of  law  and 
impulse  of  liberty  shrank  from  their  hateful  work  in  the  very 
midst  of  a  conquered  people. 

Since  the  war  ended  we  know  something  of  his  Federal  service 
and  career.  The  gentleman  from  Iowa  [Mr.  Kasson]  has  truly 
given  us  some  rare  sentences  of  fidelity  to  the  Union.  One  sen 
tence  he  did  not  quote,  which  I  well  remember:  "This  is  our 
father's  house.  We  have  returned  to  it — to  stay ! "  In  hope  and 
despair;  in  and  out  of  his  party,  in  his  place  of  business,  in  the 
forum  of  his  love,  the  bar,  and  outside  upon  the  platform,  the  same 
iieroic  altitude  he  illustrated  to  the  end  gave  him  power  to  combat 
the  enemies  of  local  and  constitutional  liberty.  No  weakness  called 
on  him  for  championship  that  he  did  not  respond.  His  State  was 
lifted  up  out  of  the  reconstruction  mire  into  the  life  and  vigor  of  a 
newr  birth  under  the  impulses  of  his  eloquence.  He  gave  her  beauty 
for  ashes.  Under  his  magic  wand  a  new  Atlantis — such  as  Bacon 
loved  to  picture — arose  above  the  tide  of  desolation ;  and  a  new 
Atlanta,  with  its  goblin  of  steam  and  its  energies,  was  recreated 


100  LIFE  A  YD  CASRACTER  OF  BENJAMIN  H.  HILL. 

under  the  ribs  of  death.  Matchless  in  his  winged  words  and  fear 
less  in  his  consummate  bravery,  he  stopped  at  no  post  of  trust  until 
he  became  the  foremost  Georgian  at  this  Federal  center;  and  in  the 
flower  of  his  genius  he  laid  down  his  eventful  life  with  a  Christian 
resignation  and  devotion  only  next  to  that  of  the  martyred  Poly- 
carp. 

I  doubt,  Mr.  Speaker,  if  ever  man  suffered  in  the  flesh  as  this 
man.  It  would  not  be  fitting  here  to  describe  the  details  of  that 
mortal  malady  and  those  surgical  agonies  that  racked  him  so  long 
and  so  terribly.  He  perished  day  by  day,  hopelessly  perishing 
with  a  pain  which  only  his  Christian  fortitude  relieved.  Out  of 
his  torture  at  length  came  deliverance ;  and  in  the  middle  of  August 
last  his  courage  yielded,  but  yielded  only  to  death. 

When  the  great  Frenchman  Gambetta  was  agonized  by  his  dis 
ease  he  cried  out,-"  It.  is  useless  to  dissemble.  I  welcome  death  as  a 
relief."  This  was  the  end  of  one  of  Plutarchian  mold;  but  it  was 
not  the  end  of  our  beloved  American  statesman.  Amid  the  tender 
farewells  of  his  wife  and  family,  with  a  patience  sanctified  on  high 
and  a  faith  which  "endured  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible,"  this 
more  than  classic  hero,  this  gentle  follower  of  the  meek  and  lowly 
One,  sought  consolation,  courage,  and  hope  in  his  faith.  His  last 
words,  as  given  to  his  pastor,  and  repeated  by  my  friends  from 
Virginia  [Mr.  Tucker]  and  from  Texas  [Mr.  AVellborn],  were, 
"Almost  home." 

It  is  an  illustration  of  the  sympathy  and  loving  kindness  which 
make  the  comforts  of  home  so  tender  and  eloquent  that  two  gentle 
men  have  most  touchingly  referred  to  these  last  words.  But  to  me 
they  have  a  double,  almost  personal,  meaning. 

1  remember  after  the  war,  with  a  tenderness  all  too  gentle  for 
words,  .the  first  greetings  1  received  from  this  Senator.  He  was 
pleased  that  I  had  aided  to  defeat,  by  a  speech  based  on  the  consti 
tutional  clause  as  to  attainder  of  treason,  the  attempt  to  take  more 
than  the  life  estate,  i.  <?.,  the  fee-simple,  which  belonged  to  the  in 
nocent  children  of  the  South.  I  had,  he  said,  thought  of  the  future 
homes  of  the  South.  That  was  our  first  bond  of  friendship. 

Home!  best  of  all  solaces,  without  whose  social  benignities  and 
affectionate  sweetness  all  the  learning,  eloquence,  wit,  lore,  and  re- 


•  ADDRESS  OF  MB.  COX  OF  NEW  YOIIK.  101 

nowu  of  men  fade  away.  His  own  sweet  home!  In  the  midst  of 
his  own  beloved  circle,  the  immortal  spirit  looked  to  that  home 
beyond  in  the  mansion  not  made  with  hands.  Yes!  oh,  yes!  he 
was  almost  there — his  heavenly  home — where  pain  no  longer  tor 
tures,  where  the  world  has  no  temptation  and  the  grave  no  terror, 
where,  with  the  loved  ones  gone  before  and  the  loved  ones  to  follow, 
he  would  join  in  the  song  of  the  Lamb  forever! 

In  conclusion :  It  remains  for  us  that  we  should  so  live  that  we 
be  neither  surprised,  nor  leave  our  duties  imperfect,  nor  our  sins 
uncanceled,  nor  our  persons  unreconciled,  nor  God  unappeased ;  but 
that  when  we  descend  to  our  graves  we  may  rest  in  the  bosom  of 
the  Lord  till  the  mansions  be  prepared,  where  we  will  sing  and 
feast  eternally.  Amen !  Te  Deum  laudamus, 

This  would  be  the  language  of  our  departed  friend  from  his 
home  above,  as  it  is  the  admonition  of  sweet  Jeremy  Taylor  in  his 
"Holy  Living  and  Dying."  It  comes  from  beyond  the  tomb. 

To  the  dead  he  sayeth,  Arise! 

To  the  living,  Follow  Me ! 
And  that  voice  still  soundeth  on 
From  the  centuries  that  are  gone, 

To  Ihe  centuries  that  shall  l»e. 


Mr.  HAMMOND,  of  Georgia.  As  has  been  remarked,  Mr. 
Speaker,  by  the  gentleman  from  Iowa  [Mr.  Kasson],  there  were 
several  gentlemen  on  each  side  of  the  House  who  were  to  have 
spoken  to-day  in  memory  of  the  late  distinguished  Senator,  but 
who  were  unavoidably  compelled  to  be  absent  on  this  occasion.  1 
ask  for  them,  informally,  the  privilege  of  printing  in  the  RECORD 
such  remarks  as  they  may  see  proper  to  insert  in  this  connection. 

The  SPEAKER.  There  is  no  objection  to  the  request  of  the  gen 
tleman  from  Georgia. 

The  question  is  on  agreeing  to  the  resolutions  which  have  been 
read. 

The  resolutions  were  unanimously  agreed  to;  and  in  pursuance 
thereof  the  House  (at  \  o'clock  and  50  minutes  p.  in.)  adjourned. 


to> 


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